South African pacer Junio Dala who made his T20I debut against India at the Wanderers picked up two wickets and that too the key wickets of Rohit Sharma and Suresh Raina.
South Africa still lost the match by 28 runs and Junior Dala after the match said going into the second T20I South Africa need to more proactive than reactive. India had made a rousing start in that game and scored 78 runs in the powerplay overs taking advantage of South Africa's short-ball strategy. Dala said that the plan was right but they need to execute it better.
"With any game plan, if you don't execute well, it always looks bad. As bowlers we were honest with each other, we had a sort of game plan. It boils down to execution. Definitely, we are going to go in with another game plan (in the second game). But I think we need to be a little bit more proactive. We have a game plan but be more proactive to it as opposed to being reactive," Dala said during the pre-match conference on Tuesday.
"When you play T20 cricket, you have to assess the wicket early on. We sort of had a game plan and we all stuck to it. The Indians also saw us bowl. So in hindsight, they saw what we did and how the wicket was and could adjust. We backed our game plan, whether it was wrong or right. It is something we truly believed it. If they were four down, we wouldn't be talking about it," he added.
Going onto add about South Africa's bowling attack at the Wanderers Dala said "I think someone like Dane Patterson bowled brilliantly at the death and Chris Morris as well. If we bring the run rate down outside Powerplay between 7 and 11, we take a lot of confidence from the fact that India looked like they'd score 240, but we restricted them to 200. We take a lot of confidence to chase that score on that wicket,"
"That (changing of bowling plans) is something the coaching staff has to decide. At the end of the day, whether Patterson or I open (the bowling) if JP (Duminy) has faith and confidence in us that's all we sort of need. We just need to be a lot more proactive. In the first three overs, if there are a lot of cut balls or pull balls, maybe we change it a lot sooner," he added.
He also spoke about his own bowling in the first T20I. "I was a bit nervous. I don't bowl in Powerplay even for Titans. So to open the bowling, I was just glad I could control the ball. Maybe, there was too much adrenaline. But overall I could have done a bit better. I am pleased that I got a few wickets also, so the debut was not too bad," Dala said.
Later he also lamented on not hearing a knick of Shikhar Dhawan who went on to score a crucial fifty for India.
"I watched the highlights. The way Shikhar played that pull shot, my sight was blinded, so when the umpire called it wide I sort of went with it. I couldn't see the ball from where I delivered. In hindsight, had I appealed it would have been a different story, they would have been 40 or 50 for three and under a lot of pressure. For Rohit's dismissal, there was a lot of adrenaline. It was very noisy. I didn't hear that. Thankfully Klassy (Heindrich Klaasen) behind the stumps was alert to that," he added.
He was all positive about South Africa's chances of winning the T20Is. "I think India played very good cricket. Had we bowled the way we did, could we be having the same conversation? I think we were not too far away on Sunday. We can turn this around. If we win tomorrow and on Saturday, everyone will say, it was a good tour for South Africa. We won the tour 2-1," Dala concluded.
