Sports

“We Lost It Up Front”: Ashwell Prince on Proteas’ Narrow T20 Defeat to New Zealand

Published

1 month ago

July 18, 2025

Chiraag

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An experimental lineup, early stumbles, and missed rhythm: the Proteas’ latest T20 slip-up leaves more questions than answers.

In the unforgiving world of T20 cricket, momentum is everything. And for South Africa’s Proteas, their pursuit of 174 runs against New Zealand in Harare started on the wrong foot and never quite recovered.

Batting consultant Ashwell Prince didn’t sugar-coat it after their 21-run loss in the second match of the T20 tri-series. From the outset, he pointed to the real issue: “We lost too many wickets too early,” he said.

A Rough Start That Set the Tone

South Africa’s chase fell apart swiftly when Lhuan-dre Pretorius, Rubin Hermann, and Reeza Hendricks all fell within the first few overs. With just 50 runs on the board and three top-order batters gone, it was always going to be an uphill battle.

Despite some promise during Dewald Brevis’ time at the crease, the Proteas couldn’t build the kind of partnerships needed to stay competitive. “We just couldn’t get any rhythm going,” Prince explained, highlighting the lack of early synergy in the batting lineup.

And rhythm, in the fast pace of T20 cricket, is everything. Without it, even powerful hitters can’t catch up.

Trying New Combinations, But at What Cost?

To be fair, this wasn’t South Africa’s usual starting XI. It was a notably inexperienced team, with four players, Pretorius, Hermann, Senuran Muthusamy, and Brevis, collectively holding less than 10 international T20 caps. Prince hinted that the line-up was part of a broader experiment to test new combinations and matchups, especially considering the short boundary at the Harare Sports Club.

“We were trying a few things, left-right combinations, young talent, and strategy around boundary dimensions,” he said. “It might not have worked this time, but we’ll play what’s in front of us next game.”

Lessons from Harare, and Looking Ahead

While the Proteas showed flashes of potential, especially in the latter overs when the run rate equation began to balance out, their undoing remained a lack of partnerships and continued wicket losses at key moments.

As South Africa now turns attention to the next game in the tri-series, the challenge will be to build from this performance without panicking. The message from Prince was clear: the squad has the firepower to win, but only if they respect the basics and their opposition equally.

It’s a reality check and a reminder: talent alone doesn’t win T20s. Execution, rhythm, and cohesion do.