South Africa has to improve their batting against the wrist-spinners: Neil Mckenzie

South Africa lost the first of the six-match ODI series by six wickets against India in Durban on Thursday despite posting a decent total on the board. Virat Kohli stepped up and slammed the 33rd ODI century of his career to shepherd yet another chase for the visitors. Though it was the wrist-spin of Yuzvendra Chahal and Kuldeep Yadav that posed the tough challenge for the hosts. However, the former South Africa cricketer Neil Mckenzie believes that the Proteas needs to tackle the wrist-spinning duo of India properly from the second match.

Chahal and Kuldeep shared five wickets between them and conceded only 79 runs in 20 overs. The batsmen had no idea of their variations and it was clear that they were finding it tough to score. The likes of David Miller, JP Duminy and Aiden Markram all were found wanting against the spinners on a slow wicket. Though the fighting century from their skipper Faf du Plessis helped the team to reach 269 after opting to bat first.

They need to do their homework now

Neil Mckenzie praised Chahal and Kuldeep both for tying down the South African batsmen and admitted that the hosts have their work cut out in the remainder of the series now. “You know what sort of total you need at Durban and losing wickets at regular intervals didn’t help South Africa. Yuzvendra Chahal and Kuldeep Yadav bowled very well,” he said. The veteran now wants the batsmen of Proteas to go back and clear their basics on how to tackle the leggies.

“South African batsmen wouldn’t have seen a lot of these leggies, so they will need to go back and do their homework. They need to start countering this wrist spin from the next ODI,” McKenzie was quoted as saying by PTI. However, he praised the efforts of the skipper Faf du Plessis and termed his knock as ‘an unbelievable innings’.

The second ODI will be played on Sunday now at Supersport in Centurion.

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