Proteas bowling consultant Langeveldt knows it’s the bowlers who win the game

20 February 2020 - 09:49 By Khanyiso Tshwaku
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Bowling coach Charl Langeveldt during a session with Kagiso Rabada.
Bowling coach Charl Langeveldt during a session with Kagiso Rabada.
Image: Christiaan Kotze/BackpagePix

As an ace death-bowler during his playing days‚ Proteas bowling consultant Charl Langeveldt knows it’s the bowlers who win the game.

This is something the Proteas bowlers will need to remember ahead of the three-match T20 international series against Australia.

It was only in the first of the three-match series against England where the bowlers properly rocked the joint with a match-winning performance.

They let the team down in the Durban and Centurion matches where they failed to keep England to fewer than 200 on admittedly unforgiving surfaces.

England‚ who took 204 off SA’s bowers in Durban in 20 overs‚ proceeded to take 226 in 19.1 overs in chasing 222 in Centurion.

Good T20 teams are ones that back their bowlers regardless of the batting skills of the opposition teams.

Australia have their own firepower that can fluster any bowling team.

Langeveldt knows his bowlers have high standards and expects that they’re upheld consistently.

“I feel it’s the bowlers who win you the games.

"T20 is a batsman game‚ but we saw with the small margins‚ that’s where the bowlers win matches.

"The pitch conditions don’t change but the difference is the skill of the bowlers to execute under pressure that helps teams wins games‚” Langeveldt said.

Langeveldt said the short-comings the SA bowlers experienced had less to do with skill‚ but knowing when to execute specific skills at specific times.

Also‚ the high turnover of matches hasn’t aided the Proteas in terms of preparing and resetting for specific matches.

“It’s more about assessing the conditions because they’ll tell you if the slower ball is working.

"I just try to mentally prepare them for the different pitch and game scenarios they’ll encounter in different matches‚” Langeveldt said.

“If anything‚ it was a lack of preparation that got to us because of short turnaround times. We just moved in between games quite quickly to have time to sit and prepare.”


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