The Proteas' upturn in fortunes in T20 cricket has largely been built on a combination of powerplay brutality and strike bowling but the glaring weakness has become the death bowling.
Bowling at the death in T20 cricket is a thankless task and some might even suggest success in that phase of the game as a bowler can depend on dumb luck.
T20 cricket doesn’t really have an established best practice for death bowling apart from shunning the use of spinners to bowl the final two overs if not the last four.
South Africa’s best bowlers in the format have been express pace merchants like Kagiso Rabada and Anrich Nortje and spinners like Tabraiz Shamsi and Keshav Maharaj.
Neither spinner is likely to have the ball in their hand to bowl the final two overs of a T20, even if the match is taking place in Asia.
Rabada and Nortje have also usually done the damage before the end and the Proteas have sought to be aggressive when defending totals regardless of their size or the nature of the pitch.
This might just be because that is the strength of South African bowling but it may also be down to the jittery way Proteas bowlers have reacted to death over assignments.
It might have been hoped that Andile Phehlukwayo could get his act together with the ball in T20 cricket but he hasn’t worked wonders and his batting isn’t where it needs to be to command the all-rounder’s position.
Dwaine Pretorius has been the favoured option to fill that all-rounder slot as a performer who is consistent with both bat and ball.
Pretorius has shown that he can win matches with the ball, and he also seems to be calmer in the situation but there are some concerns that his medium pace could be a little too enticing.
He didn’t cover himself in glory at the last World Cup though, so he could lose out on the role.
There doesn’t seem to be anyone ready-made and it is likely that Rabada and Nortje will be asked to do the job, although young Marco Jansen might put his hand up as a player who wants to embody Proteas’ boldness.
Nortje could be the man asked to pair with Pretorius as the regular death option over the next few months but whatever happens, the Proteas need to work on improving this area of their game.
