Proteas coach Mark Boucher is looking for a quick turn around as his boys are preparing to play against England in three one day internationals.
The matches, which are going to be played at Newlands in Cape Town and Paarl’s Boland Park, start with the first ODI on Friday and the last match on Wednesday, 9 December.
The Proteas need to up their game when they play in the ODIs after England whitewashed them 3-0 in the Twenty20 series played at Newlands and Boland Park.
Dawie Malan and Jos Buttler were in mean mood leading England to a nine wickets victory over the Proteas in the third and final T20 international at Newlands on Tuesday evening. Malan top scored with 99 runs off 47 balls while Buttler hit 67 from 46 deliveries.
Tuesday’s win followed after England had beaten the Proteas by five and four wickets in the first and second T20 matches respectively.
‘‘We have a different squad and a couple of fresh faces. I don’t see it being a problem for us to turn everything around in a short space of time,’’ Boucher said.
Boucher admitted that the Proteas were exposed during the three T20 matches against England and he hopes things are going to change in the ODIs.
‘‘We are getting exposed a bit in certain departments and that’s where we have to work on. We didn’t have ideal preparations as we cancelled three warm up games,’’ he said.
‘‘I don’t know about the other teams as we have not played much cricket. It’s difficult to determine where we are amongst other teams in the world.
‘‘I understand that SA public wants us to win and we want to win as well.
I do think that England are a step ahead.’’
The former Proteas wicketkeeper has, however, picked up some positives from the three matches despite losing all of them.
‘‘Rassie (van der Dussen) has had a decent series with the bat. However, it’s always difficult to look at positives when you have lost 3-0,’’ Boucher said.
Meanwhile, Boucher believes that they are on target in as far as ensuring that they have the required minimum number of black Africans in his squad.
‘‘The only thing I can say is that we had a transformation meeting and were given guidelines on the rules and we have to abide by those. If you look at the three black Africans we have in the team they are good cricketers,’’ he said referring to Temba Bavuma, Lutho Sipamla and Lungi Ngidi.
Written by Monwabsi Jimlongo
