Rob Walter backs Reeza Hendricks for Proteas’ semifinal

Much like that famous Gennaro Gattuso press conference quote, the Proteas’ run to the semifinals of the T20 World Cup have involved performances that have been “sometimes maybe good, sometimes maybe sh*t”. 

But importantly, they have always won. Seven in a row. Now Afghanistan stand between Aiden Markram’s team and a first World Cup final for a men’s Proteas team and still they have yet to produce a “perfect game”.

“We’ve done things well in patches,” coach Rob Walter said. The Proteas head coach isn’t getting carried away with the unbeaten record.

“The margins can be small in the T20 format — you can be on the wrong side of the 50/50 moments and you have to appreciate that.” 

Reeza Hendricks’ tournament has seen him fall on the wrong side of some difficult moments. He got a couple of “jaffers” in New York, then was the victim of a leg-side strangle against the West Indies, while other dismissals have resulted from him trying to accelerate the scoring. 

However, Hendricks continues to have Walter’s support. He is still one of the top five leading run-scorers in T20s this year, but he has been unable to match his consistency at franchise level with performances in the Proteas shirt. 

In summing up their run in the tournament, Walter said he had chosen to ignore the first three matches — which came on the minefield in New York — so giving Hendricks and all the batters a free pass. 

Nevertheless, Hendricks’ confidence took a hit from that experience. He has scored only 80 runs in seven innings, with his two best performances, 43 against Nepal and 19 against England, lacking the fluency for which he is known. Confidence aside, those outcomes are also down to conditions, which he has struggled to come to terms with. 

“We put a microscope on the team because it is a World Cup and overlook the performances that came before the tournament. Reeza has been one of the outstanding T20 batters in our line-up for a while now and he deserves the opportunity to make a few errors and feel trusted in our set-up,” Walter said.

Those performances included a sequence of 10 half-centuries in the 16 T20 Internationals the Proteas played before the World Cup.

“He has my backing. I know a player of Reeza’s quality is not far off. His best runs are still to come, in the most crucial part of this campaign.”

Walter believed as a whole the Proteas produced their best performance against England last Friday, where in hindsight their batting was better than initially thought, with Quinton de Kock’s innings in particular a masterpiece of game awareness and talent. 

They will be desperate to put another display together like that, but for an extended period with the bat and ball in Wednesday’s semifinal against Afghanistan (2.30am Thursday morning, SA time).

Rashid Khan’s team was among the dark horses coming into the World Cup, especially because their bowling unit has the sort of variety and skill to thrive in Caribbean conditions. They are at a point in their development where, with the kind of players they have at their disposal, a run such as theirs should not be a surprise.

They will go into that semifinal at the Brian Lara Stadium in Trinidad as underdogs, but in no way should they be underestimated. 

South Africa won’t do that. In their remarkable journey to the final four, they have endured stressful moments against so-called minnow teams like the Netherlands and Nepal. 

“There are certain parts of the game we know we need to brush up and tighten up on,” Walter said.

“We are working through that continuum the whole time; working on the things we need to do better, being real about where we are about certain aspects and then celebrating the things we are getting right.”