Proteas coach Ottis Gibson blames batsmen for ODI series loss to India

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Proteas coach Otis Gibson (left) blames his team’s batting for the ODI series loss to India. Image Source: Xtra Time

Debasis Sen, Port Elizabeth: Proteas coach Ottis Gibson blamed his batsmen for the ODI series loss to India. The Proteas went down to India by 73 runs at St Georges Park to trail 1-4 in the six-match series with one match to go. Despite losing the series the former West Indian is confident that the team will do well in the 2019 World Cup which is still a year away.

“We succumbed quite easily tonight, to be bowled out in 42 overs is very disappointing from a batting point of view. Even with the bowling there were some soft boundaries, this has gone on the whole series. So just a bit more fight with the bat,” said Gibson in the post match conference yesterday.

The Proteas bowlers did well to restrict a power packed Indian batting line up to 270 odd runs. But regular wickets during the powerplay did not help the run chase.

“I thought at the halfway stage we gave ourselves a very good chance to keep ourselves in the series. We came this afternoon very optimistic that the series was still there to be drawn. To bowl them out for 270-odd was a great effort from the bowlers, and we let ourselves down with the bat. There’s not a lot more to say than that. It’s something we have been talking about for five games now. We showed at the Wanderers that we can play better than we have done, but tonight was disappointing,” feel Gibson.

The Proteas coach heaped loads of praises on Indian medium pacer Jasprit Bumrah who has been outstanding in the ODI series so far.

“To be fair we were 50 for none and we lost a wicket with four balls to go in the PowerPlay to their best bowler. Bumrah has been their fast bowler all summer. We lost a couple more shortly thereafter and that set us back. Hash worked really hard to try and rebuild but every time we rebuilt we lost wickets. With the four bowlers, we needed our best six or seven batsmen to bat the bulk of the overs and they weren’t able to do that tonight.”

Asked why the hosts have struggled to get the Indian top order batsmen out, Gibson said that they haven’t controlled the length.

“The Indian top order is very experienced and they’ve played well. They’ve seen off the new ball or been able to score freely. We haven’t been able to hold the length very well. I keep saying to the bowlers that in order to control the scoring rate you have to control your length. Otherwise you can’t stop batsmen from scoring, and we’ve not been able to control length as well as we should be doing at this level and that’s allowed them to score quite freely at times.