ENG vs SA: Mark Boucher left disappointed after batting let down in South Africa's series loss


image-l7zvmks3Skipper Elgar disappointed with the bat [PC: Twitter]

Marshalled by Dean Elgar, South Africa gained the upper hand after winning the Lord's Test but failed to seize the advantage. A collective batting failure saw the visitors lose back-to-back Tests at Manchester and The Oval, handing England a 2-1 series win, much to the disappointment of coach Mark Boucher. 

Boucher, who will step down as South Africa's national coach post the ICC T20 World Cup 2022, reflected on his side's batting show, which failed to provide a potent pace attack crack at clinching the trophy.

"I'm disappointed because it's a missed opportunity. We played some very good cricket but then we let ourselves down. 

We just didn't put the runs on the board so we never quite knew how we could Test England. We believed we had the bowlers to be able to take 20 wickets, but you've got to score runs." - Boucher was quoted by ESPNcricinfo

South Africa are currently placed second in the ICC World Test Championship 2021-23, behind leaders Australia and ahead of Sri Lanka and India. The Proteas' next Test assignment will be against the mighty Australian in their own backyard in December, but sans Boucher.

The 45-year-old also talked about a coach not treating the Test arena as an academy for batters to develop their batting, and that only minute tinkering is needed.


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