Karachi: South Africa’s captain Quinton de Kock on Friday put down his team’s defeat in the first Test against Pakistan to soft dismissals, saying his players had enough time to adjust to the slow nature of the pitch here.
Spinners Nauman Ali and Yasir Shah bamboozled the South African batsmen to help Pakistan win the series opener by seven wickets inside four days.
“Obviously our first innings batting performance let us down, there were a couple of soft dismissals and it led to our losing the game,” de Kock said after the match.
This is only Pakistan’s fifth win over South Africa in 27 matches.
De Kock said his team had not taken too long to adjust to conditions in Pakistan despite the COVID-19 situation.
“We let ourselves down in the first innings. Obviously, when you bat first you need more than 220 and then we had them something like 40 for four, but we allowed them to come back into the game.”
Talking about recent batting collapses by South Africa in Test cricket, he said the team was trying to work out why they were happening.
“Trust me if we knew it would not be happening.”
He said when the batsmen got bogged down they tried to play shots, but on this pitch, playing patiently was the requirement.
Pakistan skipper Babar Azam said it is his ambition to see his team start winning overseas.
“I think, at home, you are expected to do well because conditions suit you, but we need to start winning overseas as well.
“I think we need to show more trust in our players and our top performers. We can’t discard players after just one or two bad performances, we need to have belief in them.”
Babar said scoring runs abroad gave him more confidence than amassing big numbers at home.
He termed the win over South Africa as “very necessary for the team”.
“I think this victory came through because all the 11 players contributed and especially the way Nouman Ali bowled in this match. It was his debut and there was pressure on him against a good team, but he delivered. We need to trust our players.”
