• Duminy: We’ll bounce back

    JP Duminy says South Africa were outplayed in every department in their loss to Bangladesh on Wednesday as the home team celebrated their first ever series win over the Proteas. Kobus Pretorius reports.

    Duminy was fairly forthright in his post-match press conference after South Africa lost the deciding third ODI by nine wickets to lose the series 2-1.

    The visitors were thoroughly outplayed in the last two games and much of the blame for the two defeats must be directed at the batting line-up.

    The Proteas batsmen could manage 162 and 168 respectively in the last two ODI’s which gave the bowlers nothing to defend.

    ‘Our batting was good enough in last two games,’ Duminy admitted. ‘We’ve got a lot of work to do in these conditions. The selectors backed seven batsmen to do the job and we couldn’t.’

    Duminy said Bangladesh’s strength had been the variations among their seam bowlers.

    ‘They have been successful doing that. Their opening batsmen have also been formidable in these last two games which is exciting for them.

    ‘We knew it would be a tough tour. They gained a lot of confidence from their success against Pakistan and India. I don’t think it’s a massive problem [batting]. There’s a lot of learning to take out of it. We pride ourselves on our batters getting big runs and building big partnerships, but we have to give credit to Bangladesh. Their bowlers did well.

    ‘At the end of the day we weren’t good enough. Whichever XI is picked needs to do a job for the team. We’ve played seven batters for a while and have been successful doing that up until the World Cup.’

    According to Duminy the team won’t take the series defeat lightly.

    ‘I think any series loss is a big one. I guess the expectation was for us to win the series, but again, on any given day it’s about the performances you put out as a team and Bangladesh outplayed us in every department. I have no doubt we will bounce back next month against New Zealand.’