India vs South Africa: Bhuvneshwar Kumar was special throughout the series, says Boucher
South Africa head coach Mark Boucher lamented the absence of Aiden Markram, terming India pacer Bhuvneshwar Kumar’s performance in the series as “special”. Bhuvneshwar, who now plays only white-ball cricket, took six wickets in four full games and conceded only 85 runs in 14 overs at an economy rate that was just a shadow of six runs per over.
“Bhuvi was special throughout this series as we came up against some quality bowling. They put pressure on us in the powerplays and except for one match (Delhi) where we started well, they dominated us with both the ball and the bat in the powerplays. 2-0 up at the start.
For his impressive bowling performance against South Africa, @BhuviOfficial received the Pair of the Series award. #TeamIndia | #INDvSA | @Paytm pic.twitter.com/gcIuFS4J9y
— BCCI (@BCCI) June 19, 2022
However, losing Markram due to COVID-19 at the start of the series had a huge impact, felt the former glove. “It was tough losing Aiden Markram even before we started the first game. We wanted to play with six batsmen, with Aiden being our sixth option and we could not do that,” Boucher said.
He said that the long IPL 2022 made the players tired and it also affected the final result. “We didn’t play our best cricket and it was very difficult for our IPL players to last the entire IPL and then come back-to-back to India,” he added.
“The boys are a little tired too. So they will all enjoy the break in the World Cup year and (after learning a) will learn a lot. And see, if we can fill in some of the gaps going into Australia under different circumstances. ,
While stars like Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli and Jasprit Bumrah were rested for the series, Boucher lauded the depth of the Indian cricket system created by the IPL. “I know there weren’t a lot of top (India) players here, but the depth that Indian cricket has at the moment is largely due to the IPL, they can take a lot of confidence too.
“You cannot walk into India and expect to win even a series. So, we played some good games and two bad games and there are reasons for that, but you can’t get too much into it,” he said.
(with PTI input)