{"id":24308,"date":"2025-11-15T01:45:13","date_gmt":"2025-11-15T01:45:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tezgyan.com\/index.php\/2025\/11\/15\/pitch-woes-or-poor-shots-batting-coach-explains-south-africas-batting-failure-cricket-news\/"},"modified":"2025-11-15T01:45:13","modified_gmt":"2025-11-15T01:45:13","slug":"pitch-woes-or-poor-shots-batting-coach-explains-south-africas-batting-failure-cricket-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tezgyan.com\/index.php\/2025\/11\/15\/pitch-woes-or-poor-shots-batting-coach-explains-south-africas-batting-failure-cricket-news\/","title":{"rendered":"Pitch Woes Or Poor Shots? Batting Coach Explains South Africa’s Batting Failure | Cricket News"},"content":{"rendered":"


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Last Updated:<\/span>

Ashwell Prince admitted SA\u2019s batters never settled on a tricky Kolkata surface, calling their soft dismissals costly and insisting they must \u201cplay the conditions\u201d next innings.<\/h2>\n
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\"South<\/p>\n

South Africa’s Wiaan Mulder, right, and batting partner Tony de Zorzi walk off the field for lunch on the first day of the first cricket test match between India and South Africa in Kolkata, India, Friday, Nov. 14, 2025. (AP Photo\/Aijaz Rahi)\n<\/p>\n<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

South Africa\u2019s arrival in India could have been a little better had their middle order sustained more than two sessions. Despite a decent start given by the openers \u2013 Ryan Rickleton and Aiden Markram \u2014 the promising start after the first hour was squandered. The Proteas batting unit failed to fire, registering just 159 in 55 overs \u2013 their second-lowest first-innings score against India.<\/p>\n

Wiaan Mulder, Tony de Zorzi, and Kyle Verreynne all fell in similar fashion shortly after getting set. The collapse began immediately after lunch, triggered by the combined pressure of Jasprit Bumrah and Kuldeep Yadav. Sensing the emergence of reverse swing, Mohammed Siraj struck twice in a single over, trapping Verreynne lbw and bowling Marco Jansen.<\/p>\n

Axar maintained the pressure, claiming Corbin Bosch with a straightening delivery. Ultimately, the tailenders failed to support specialist batter Tristan Stubbs, allowing Bumrah to tear through the lower order, securing two more wickets in one over to complete his 16th Test five-wicket haul and surpass Mohammad Shami\u2019s tally.<\/p>\n

Questions were plenty when South Africa batting coach Ashwell Prince spoke to the media after the stumps on Day 1. Surprisingly, the former Proteas batter failed to give one solid answer to address the visitors\u2019 batting failure.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you look at the scorecard, quite a few of them will be disappointed at getting to 20 or 30 and then getting out. Firstly, we\u2019ve got to give credit to the Indian bowlers, as a lot of them were pretty good. Secondly, my assessment of the surface is that the bounce is not consistent. The signs were there pretty early on in the first over,” Prince told the media.<\/p>\n

\u201cQuite often, when you expect batters to get to 20 or 30 and grow in confidence, I don\u2019t particularly believe that any of the batters grew in confidence because of the inconsistency of the bounce. What can happen is that you don\u2019t trust the surface as much as you should after spending an hour at the crease. And then, of course, when you face a quality bowling attack, they more often than not get the ball in the danger area, and it does too much for you. Unfortunately, that\u2019s been the case today,” he added.<\/p>\n

It was simply a display of poor shot selection by the South African batters. Eventually, the pressure creeped in and those who looked to repair the damage at one point, ended up throwing away their wickets. But the game isn\u2019t over yet and the Proteas will have another shot to glory.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m sure we\u2019ll have some discussions about which type of options we can take\u2014more aggressive options,” Prince said.<\/p>\n

\u201cEverybody\u2019s got his own character and style. Most of the time, we ask people to play within their character, but obviously, we have to take the surface into consideration. Next time round, in the second innings, we have to play the conditions. These are the conditions; how can we be more effective on it? I\u2019m sure we\u2019ll have a discussion around that this evening,” he added.<\/p>\n

Even India had their share of struggles, especially bagging under the setting sun with flood lights on. Keshav Maharaj made it tough for KL Rahul with turning deliveries. But patience took the hosts through those 15-20 minutes before stumps. Something that was lacking in South Africa\u2019s approach.<\/p>\n

So, is pitch the concern? Prince refrained from making any opinion, rather said it\u2019s a matter of discussion.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe didn\u2019t want to make any assumptions about the pitch before the Indians had a chance to bat on it. They\u2019ve faced about 60 deliveries, and it\u2019s an awkward period to bat, which would suggest that it\u2019s not a free-scoring pitch. Having said that, they still have nine wickets in hand, and there\u2019s no rush for them in terms of time. From our point of view, we want them to have at least 150 to chase in the second innings, which means we\u2019ll have to keep that lead as small as possible. Then, hopefully, we can set something up in the second innings,” Prince said.<\/p>\n

\u2018Rabada Missed Big Time\u2019<\/strong><\/h2>\n

The South Africans are without their premium bowler, Kagiso Rabada, who was ruled out of the first Test due to a rib injury. While uncertainty looms over his participation in the Guwahati Test as well, the batting coach admitted that his absence has been felt already.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe [Kagiso Rabada] is a world-class bowler, probably one of the top two or three seam bowlers in the world. We\u2019ve seen what damage one of the other best seam bowlers in the world (Jasprit Bumrah) can do on that surface.”<\/p>\n

\u201cSo, he\u2019ll definitely be missed on this surface because I do think it is actually aiding the fast bowlers,” Prince said.<\/p>\n

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\"Aakash<\/figure>\n

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Aakash Biswas<\/a><\/p>\n

A cricket enthusiast whose dreams of playing for India paved the way for a compelling journey in journalism. With a comprehensive coverage spanning international and domestic cricket across formats, I have had …Read More<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

A cricket enthusiast whose dreams of playing for India paved the way for a compelling journey in journalism. With a comprehensive coverage spanning international and domestic cricket across formats, I have had … Read More<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

First Published:<\/span><\/p>\n
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November 14, 2025, 21:47 IST<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

News<\/a> cricket<\/a> Pitch Woes Or Poor Shots? Batting Coach Explains South Africa’s Batting Failure<\/span><\/div>\n
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Last Updated:November 14, 2025, 21:47 IST Ashwell Prince admitted SA\u2019s batters never settled on a tricky Kolkata surface, calling their soft dismissals costly and insisting they must \u201cplay the conditions\u201d next innings. South Africa’s Wiaan Mulder, right, and batting partner Tony de Zorzi walk off the field for lunch on the first day of the…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":24309,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[50],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-24308","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cricket"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tezgyan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24308","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tezgyan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tezgyan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tezgyan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tezgyan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24308"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tezgyan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24308\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tezgyan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24309"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tezgyan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24308"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tezgyan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24308"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tezgyan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24308"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}