South Africa pace-bowling coach Charl Langeveldt believes beating Bangladesh in the second match to sweep the Twenty20 international series 2-0 will not be an easy task. The former Proteas paceman credited the aggression shown by his charges behind the easy win in the first game and hinted of sticking to the plan.
“It is an international game so we expect them to come hard, to be honest. I think they are playing good cricket at the moment. They have also got good skilled bowlers like the left-arm pacer (Mustafizur Rahman). So I think we expect it to be a good play tomorrow (today),” said Langeveldt to the media at Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium yesterday.
The visitors rode on their four-man pace attack on a slow and low SBNS wicket in the first match to land a comfortable 52-run win. Since arriving in Dhaka the South African team, who are said to have their second-string pace attack at their disposal, have played a warm-up and an official T20 and on both occasions their opponents – BCB XI and Bangladesh – were bundled out below 100 runs.
In the first match, Kyle Abbot and Kagiso Rabada generated pace with the new ball before David Wiese and Wayne Parnell mixed up their pace to get the most off the pitch. Langeveldt, who has 100 ODI, 16 Test and 15 T20I wickets to his name, said it’s all about coping with the situation and sensing what is needed.
“I think our game plan for the bowlers is to be aggressive against the Bangladesh batsmen. But if you look at it, we weren’t bowling that many bouncers. I think our guys have executed well,” he said.
“We try to use our aggression that’s why we play four fast bowlers. I think it worked for us yesterday (Sunday) and might not work another day. The whole thing about South Africa’s bowling now is adapting with the moment. You cannot just be aggressive say against Shakib al [Hasan] who is playing to win. So I think for our guys it is just about adapting with the situation.”
The character of the wicket was more helpful for the visiting spinners earlier and Langeveldt expects a different turf today which might be more helpful for the home side.
“I think it all depends on the groundsmen. I think he makes that decision. Obviously home ground advantage is up to them. I still think JP [Duminy] bowled well in the first game and the wicket did deteriorate in the second inning so it helped us when we were bowling. Well, it is up to them. The wicket should be depending on how they are planning their eleven,” said Langeveldt, who took charge as the South African pace-bowling coach last month after Allan Donald stepped down from the post.