Proteas opening batter Ryan Rickelton believes South Africa were not completely outplayed in the first Test in Lahore and that only minor tweaks are needed ahead of the second Test in Rawalpindi.
The Proteas lost the opener by just over 90 runs, but there were promising performances from several individuals — including Tony de Zorzi, who struck a century, Rickelton and Dewald Brevis, who both scored half-centuries, and Senuran Muthusamy, who claimed 11 wickets in the match.
The Proteas pushed Pakistan hard, and because of that, Rickelton believes the margin of defeat did not reflect how competitive the match truly was. The 29-year-old reckons they conceded 50 to 100 runs too many in the first innings, a lapse that ultimately proved costly.
“I think we competed really well. I thought that maybe the area where we fell short was the first innings. We let them get maybe 50 to 100 too many, especially that first session on Day One. That was the telltale difference,” Rickelton told the media on Saturday.
“I think 90 runs at the end of the day wasn’t a devastatingly massive loss, in my opinion. But I think there were small moments where we definitely went out of the game. To bat last on that wicket to chase 280 or whatever it was, was maybe about 60 runs too many. I think there are small areas we can improve on. But I don’t think we were heavily outplayed at all.”
South Africa will play the second and final Test of the series at the Rawalpindi Cricket Stadium, with Day One set to get underway on Monday.
Rickelton reiterated that the team only needs to make small adjustments to stand a realistic chance of earning their first win in this cycle of the ICC World Test Championship.
“I think it’s small adjustments, in all honesty. I haven’t sat in any of the bowlers’ meetings, but I think those guys are always at length about the pace they need to bowl, areas, plans — all those kinds of things,” he said.
“So those are all the adjustments. Having played against the guys now, we know how they’re going to come at us from a bowling perspective.
“And then as batters, we had a lengthy discussion just about trying to find a way to deal with their best ball. What does it look like between attack and defence? And not really giving into the cliché that it’s more respectable to get out in a certain way — rather, look to find a way.
“If the wicket is as tough as it can sometimes be, it’s a matter of time. So it’s just about finding that balance between attacking and defending, training hard on that over these next two days, and making peace with the way the game is going to go.
“And then, probably a more suitable thing is obviously trying to adapt to reverse swing — the bowlers as well — how we can get the ball to tail like Shaheen Afridi and Hasan Ali did. As batters, we’ll try to counter that.
“So it’s just small little things that we picked up in the last game, which we’ll probably need to be better at. And again, we get to put that to the test today.”
