‘We have to be better,’ says Proteas captain Markram

Aiden Markram refused to blame losing the toss as the reason for the Proteas’ first defeat in their past 12 Tests on Wednesday.

The Proteas’ stand-in captain explained that despite batting conditions being the best on the first day at Gaddafi Stadium in Lahore, his side needed to have better plans and execute those more accurately, while the batters had to be more decisive.

“In an ideal world you’d like to bat first,” said Markram, after Pakistan beat South Africa by 93 runs to take a 1-0 lead in the two-match series.

“I suppose you can think that the toss was the difference, but it didn’t feel like that in this game. The conditions were tricky throughout. Maybe the first two sessions, it was pretty good to bat.”

It was in that period that Pakistan scored 199 runs, and then added another 114 in the last session to reach 313/5 at stumps. Markram said his team created small moments, referencing three dropped catches on the opening day and the period when they took three wickets without Pakistan scoring, around the tea break.

But Mohammad Rizwan and Salman Ali Agha’s sixth-wicket partnership worth 163 would provide decisive in the outcome. Salman benefited from one of those misses on the first day, when Markram at slip dropped him when he had 36. Salman would finish as Pakistan’s joint top-scorer with 93, in a first innings that, despite a late collapse, saw the hosts reach 378.

“They deserve credit for those two big partnerships in the first innings, especially the one with Rizwan and Salman,” said Markram. “We thought we bowled well, we had good plans. They played the sweep shot really well and made it tough to set fields to limit scoring. Because of that we leaked too many runs and instead of going at twos and threes, you are going at fours and that does add up.”

Although disappointed at the outcome, there were some highlights for the Proteas. Senuran Muthusamy finished with 11 wickets and probably secured his starting place, not just for next week’s Test in Rawalpindi, but for the matches in India too - should conditions there be similar to Lahore.

Tony de Zorzi, Ryan Rickelton and Dewald Brevis all batted well, using very different methods to achieve their success. Much of Rickelton and De Zorzi’s work was based on solid defence and in De Zorzi’s case, when scoring his first innings century, clear judgment.

Brevis showed off all his flair in scoring a run-a-ball 54 in the second innings, which briefly concerned the home team. “Brevis will always take the game on; that’s when he’s at his best. Rickelton and others might back their defence more, and feed off the scraps … they’re two different ways of approaching it, but still two ways you can be successful in these conditions, it’s about committing to one way,” said Markram.

As with the toss, Markram wasn’t bothered by how much assistance there was for the spinners, saying the conditions were entirely as his team and the coaching staff had anticipated.

“It is important to have plans to win games of cricket even if the toss doesn’t go your way. I always say, you don’t come to win the toss, you come to win the game, and you have to find ways to do that. We expected conditions to be like this, we expect that again for the second Test and it is on us to find ways to be better and find ways to win.”