ST GEORGE [GRENADA]: After suffering a defeat at the hands of West Indies in the first T20I, South Africa Temba Bavuma said his side leans heavily on its bowling attack and the batting outfit would be required to do the needful with the bat.
An electric batting display by the West Indies saw them take a 1-0 lead in the opener of the five-match T20 series against South Africa at the National Cricket Stadium on Saturday (local time) here at the National Cricket Stadium.
"Obviously disappointed. That's not the way we wanted to start. As a team, we have a lot to speak about. We don't have a lot of time. We have to come with a better plan. We thought it was a decent score, but below par. That's the effort we were able to manage with the bat. We were leaning quite heavily on our bowling attack. As I said, we got to have those conversations. We didn't capitalize in the second half of our batting. We knew they'd come out hard," said Bavuma after the match came to an end.
"Was trying to get as many dots as possible, get them to play those big shots, make the mistakes and obviously take them. They played well, Lewis and Fletcher got them off to a flier upfront and they never really gave us a chance after that. It's a mindset thing, you can't change your skills in a day or couple of hours. Mentally, our tactics have to be more sound. We'll have to come with a better attitude and make sure that we focus on our execution," he added.
It was the batting prowess of Evin Lewis that got the hosts the quick-fire start that they were looking for. He smashed seven sixes and four boundaries on his way to 71 from 35 balls in their reply to South Africa's under-par 160/6 after being put in to bat first. Lewis shared a partnership of 85 runs with Andre Fletcher to get their side off to a start which the visitors never recovered from.
Gayle and Russell contributed with unbeaten scores of 32 (24) and 23 (12) respectively, as their side cantered to an easy win. The only breakthroughs came by way of a direct hit by Lungi Ngidi (0/46) to remove Fletcher at the end of the 7th over and Tabraiz Shamsi (1/27), who finally ended Lewis' reign in the 12th.
The second match takes place later today at the same venue, which does not give the tourists much time to work on what needs turning around, but they are still confident that they can do so.