Cricket-South Africa lacked fight in Australia loss, captain Bavuma says

FILE PHOTO: Cricket - 2025 ICC World Test Championship Final - South Africa v Australia - Lord's Cricket Ground, London, Britain - June 13, 2025 South Africa's Kagiso Rabada reacts Action Images via Reuters/Andrew Boyers/File Photo

DURBAN, Oct 13 (Reuters) - South Africa ⁠did not show enough fight and were let down by their mental aptitude, captainTemba Bavuma said on ⁠Tuesday after they were beaten by Australia in the first test.

South Africa, who upset Australia in last ‌year’s World Test Championship final in London, suffered a heavy 214-run defeat at Kingsmead after being bowled out for 206 in their second innings.

“It’s disappointing. It's not the way you want to start a series, right? Any kind of series, let alone one against a top outfit like Australia,” ​Bavuma told reporters.

“There are obvious things that we could definitely improve on, ⁠whether it's from the batting point of view ⁠or the bowling but yeah, it's not a happy change room.”

South Africa negated losing the toss, often crucial at ⁠the ‌Durban venue, by having the tourists floundering on the first day but then Matt Renshaw scored 190 to steer Australia to a handy first innings total of 390 and they never looked back after that.

“You have ⁠to praise the Australians the way they hung in when we had ​them 124-6. As a bowling attack, ‌you're betting on yourself to restrict them to less than 250 and for them to go and get ⁠that big score, ​I think mentally took a little bit out of us,” added Bavuma, who saw his unbeaten record as captain ended.

AUSTRALIA SET THE EXAMPLE

When South Africa went out to bat, they were faced with the same favourable batting conditions.

“We weren’t able to make the most ⁠of it. Australia’s lower order spent time at the crease and really ​showed what was possible once the ball got soft.

“In the second innings they played like a team that was in front. They put us under pressure, took command of the game, and in our second innings, there was just not enough ⁠fight and mental aptitude from us,” the captain said.

Aiden Markram was the only South African batsman to score more than 50 in the match, batting for most of Tuesday as he tried to keep a rearguard fight intact before being dismissed near the end for 75.

It was South Africa’s first test since their 2-0 series win in India last November ​and Bavuma was asked about his side being “rusty”.

“I can’t sit here and use ⁠that as an excuse. You can never really prepare for test cricket without playing test cricket. But a lot of the ​mistakes we made out there were mental, so I think that's where ‌we really let ourselves down," he said.

“In saying that, whatever ​cobwebs were there, I guess are dusted out and we have another opportunity in a couple of days.”

The second test is at St George’s Park in Gqeberha (formerly Port Elizabeth), starting on Sunday.

(Editing by Pritha Sarkar)

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资料照片：板球 - 2025年国际板球理事会世界测试锦标赛决赛 - 南非对阵澳大利亚 - 英国伦敦，罗德板球场 - 2025年6月13日 南非球员卡吉索·拉巴达做出反应 （图片来自路透社/安德鲁·博耶斯/资料照片）

德班，10 月 13 日（路透社）——南非队队长坦巴·巴武马周二在首场测试赛中被澳大利亚队击败后表示，南非队没有展现出足够的斗志，他们的心理素质也令人失望。

南非队去年在伦敦举行的世界测试锦标赛决赛中爆冷击败澳大利亚队，但在金斯米德球场遭遇惨败，第二局仅得 206 分便被淘汰出局，最终以 214 分之差落败。

“这令人失望。你肯定不想以这种方式开始一个系列赛，对吧？任何类型的系列赛都不想，更何况是对阵像澳大利亚这样的顶级强队，”巴武马告诉记者。

“很明显，我们在击球或投球方面都有可以改进的地方，但总的来说，更衣室里的气氛并不愉快。”

南非队虽然输掉了掷硬币，但这在德班的比赛场地往往至关重要。他们让客队在第一天陷入困境，但随后马特·伦肖拿下 190 分，带领澳大利亚队取得了 390 分的首局总分，此后他们再也没有给对手任何机会。

“你必须称赞澳大利亚队在124-6领先时展现出的顽强斗志。作为一支投球队伍，你寄希望于将他们的得分限制在250分以下，但他们却拿到了高分，我认为这在精神上打击了我们，”巴武马补充道，他的队长不败纪录就此终结。

澳大利亚树立了榜样

南非队上场击球时，也面临着同样的有利击球条件。

“我们没能充分利用这一点。澳大利亚的下半场球员在击球区待了很久，真正展现了球变软后他们能做到什么程度。”

“第二局他们打得像一支领先的队伍。他们给我们施加了压力，掌控了比赛，而我们在第二局中缺乏足够的斗志和心理素质，”队长说道。

艾登·马克拉姆是南非队唯一一位得分超过 50 分的击球手，他在周二的大部分时间里都在击球，试图保持顽强的抵抗，但在比赛接近尾声时以 75 分被淘汰出局。

这是南非自去年 11 月在印度以 2-0 赢得系列赛以来的首场测试赛，巴武马被问及他的球队是否“生疏”。

“我不能坐在这里以此为借口。不打板球测试赛，你永远无法真正为板球测试赛做好准备。但我们在比赛中犯的很多错误都是心理上的，所以我认为这才是我们真正让自己失望的地方，”他说。

“也就是说，不管之前有什么隐患，我想现在都已经清除干净了，几天后我们还有机会。”

第二场测试将于周日在格贝哈（原伊丽莎白港）的圣乔治公园举行。

（普里塔·萨卡尔编辑）

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