Ireland are not a big team, drawing series against them was disappointing: Hendricks
The Proteas played a two-match T20I series in Abu Dhabi against Ireland last month where the two teams shared the spoils
South Africa opener Reeza Hendricks has expressed disappointment over the Proteas drawing the T20I series against Ireland, stating that not winning a series against Ireland, who are ‘not one of the bigger teams’, is below South Africa’s standards.
The Proteas played a two-match T20I series in Abu Dhabi against Ireland last month where the two teams shared the spoils after Ireland won the second T20I by 10 runs following losing the first game by eight wickets.
After the T20Is, South Africa won the ODIs 2-1 but Hendricks was upset with his side’s showing in the shortest format.
“The T20Is against Ireland … we allowed them to level the series, which again was disappointing according to our standards,” Hendricks told SportsBoom.com.
“With all due respect to Ireland, they are not one of the bigger teams, so to level a series against them was disappointing. We would’ve loved to do better.”
Before the Ireland series, South Africa played a three-match T20I series against Afghanistan in Sharjah and there they slumped to a shocking series defeat. After getting bundled out for 106 in the first game, the Proteas got rolled over for 134 in the second, chasing 312, as Afghanistan registered a historic series win.
The Afghan spinners spun a web around the South African batters and Hendricks, talking about the series, said that the novelty of the Afghanistan spinners, coupled with the conditions, proved to be a torrid combination for his side.
“They’ve got world-class spinners. Rashid Khan did unbelievably well in the one game picking up five wickets and then the mystery spinner (Ghazanfar) that’s new on the scene kind of shocked the world,” Hendricks said of Afghanistan.
“Look, it was tricky, it’s guys we don’t face often enough, and it was in their conditions where the ball was assisting them and was turning.
“So, I think they put us under pressure, and we couldn’t step up in those conditions. Against Afghanistan, we struggled a bit. We lost the series there so in that sense it was disappointing.”
The Proteas’ next international assignment is a two-Test series away in Bangladesh, starting October 21 in Dhaka.
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