I picked Crane - De Villiers
Mason Crane made his T20 international debut for England against the Proteas yesterday.
The 20-year-old leg-spinner failed to take a wicket and conceded 24 runs in his four overs.
Proteas captain, AB de Villiers, has revealed that he was able to read Crane.
"I picked his deliveries. However, he did pretty well for a youngster. I think he must have been under big pressure playing in front of a packed stadium and against some of the best players in our team. I thought he handled himself pretty well. He did give us a few balls to hit. This is normal for a leg-spinner, especially in his first game at this level. He definitely has some skill. It is nice to see youngsters like that come through," De Villiers said.
De Villiers feels they could and probably should have punished the young leg-spinner a bit more.
"We missed out on a couple. He dropped a couple short and they bounced a touch more than expected. That happens. He also bowled a couple of full tosses. I put the one away and I bottom edged another. There was probably a touch of drift the contend with. You do not always hit them in the middle. We tried to expose all the England bowlers in certain areas today. We got it right at times, but not consistently enough. We probably fell about 20 runs short. I know it does not look like that losing by five overs and a bit. They had the freedom of going after us, because they had wickets in hand and were chasing a low total. It would have been a different game had we scored about 20 runs more," De Villiers added.
De Villiers and Farhaan Behardien shared in an unbroken fourth-wicket stand of 110 in the Proteas nine-wicket loss to England yesterday. De Villiers admits that he and Behardien had not batted quickly enough.
"We tried to have a go from around the 12th or 13th over. We had the intent then to take the attack to England. I told Fudgie (Behardien) that we needed to go at around ten-an-over. However, we ended getting five or six an over at times. That was just the nature of this wicket. They also had plans in place and kept hitting the deck hard and they got variation off the deck. It was natural variation as it was the middle of the day with quite a bit of heat around. The ball did react a little bit differently and surprised us at times," De Villiers said.
De Villiers believes the Proteas had failed to cash in when it was best to bat. He feels the early overs had provided the best batting conditions.
"Unfortunately we made a slow start and lost some early wickets. Looking back I would say that the first six overs probably gave us the best batting conditions. Conditions got really slow after that. It became more difficult to hit through the line. I feel that we could have cashed in in the first six overs, but we were forced to rebuild. We were three down early and I think Fudgie and I did well to bring us back into the game. We tried to take the attack to them and it was really difficult to get the ball away. Both of us struggled to clear the field in the V. We tried all our skills, but ended up falling 20 to 25 runs short of a good score. England did bowl pretty well. We were outplayed. I pride myself in taking it to the bowlers at the end, but today it was really difficult to get the ball away," De Villiers concluded.
The second of three T20 internationals is scheduled for tomorrow - 23 June.
Play at Taunton is scheduled to start at 18h00 - South African time.
Proteas captain, AB de Villiers, has revealed that he was able to read Crane.
"I picked his deliveries. However, he did pretty well for a youngster. I think he must have been under big pressure playing in front of a packed stadium and against some of the best players in our team. I thought he handled himself pretty well. He did give us a few balls to hit. This is normal for a leg-spinner, especially in his first game at this level. He definitely has some skill. It is nice to see youngsters like that come through," De Villiers said.
De Villiers feels they could and probably should have punished the young leg-spinner a bit more.
"We missed out on a couple. He dropped a couple short and they bounced a touch more than expected. That happens. He also bowled a couple of full tosses. I put the one away and I bottom edged another. There was probably a touch of drift the contend with. You do not always hit them in the middle. We tried to expose all the England bowlers in certain areas today. We got it right at times, but not consistently enough. We probably fell about 20 runs short. I know it does not look like that losing by five overs and a bit. They had the freedom of going after us, because they had wickets in hand and were chasing a low total. It would have been a different game had we scored about 20 runs more," De Villiers added.
De Villiers and Farhaan Behardien shared in an unbroken fourth-wicket stand of 110 in the Proteas nine-wicket loss to England yesterday. De Villiers admits that he and Behardien had not batted quickly enough.
"We tried to have a go from around the 12th or 13th over. We had the intent then to take the attack to England. I told Fudgie (Behardien) that we needed to go at around ten-an-over. However, we ended getting five or six an over at times. That was just the nature of this wicket. They also had plans in place and kept hitting the deck hard and they got variation off the deck. It was natural variation as it was the middle of the day with quite a bit of heat around. The ball did react a little bit differently and surprised us at times," De Villiers said.
De Villiers believes the Proteas had failed to cash in when it was best to bat. He feels the early overs had provided the best batting conditions.
"Unfortunately we made a slow start and lost some early wickets. Looking back I would say that the first six overs probably gave us the best batting conditions. Conditions got really slow after that. It became more difficult to hit through the line. I feel that we could have cashed in in the first six overs, but we were forced to rebuild. We were three down early and I think Fudgie and I did well to bring us back into the game. We tried to take the attack to them and it was really difficult to get the ball away. Both of us struggled to clear the field in the V. We tried all our skills, but ended up falling 20 to 25 runs short of a good score. England did bowl pretty well. We were outplayed. I pride myself in taking it to the bowlers at the end, but today it was really difficult to get the ball away," De Villiers concluded.
The second of three T20 internationals is scheduled for tomorrow - 23 June.
Play at Taunton is scheduled to start at 18h00 - South African time.
Twitter - @SportswaveAndre