Conrad upbeat despite record defeat as Proteas eye T20 series

Proteas head coach Shukri Conrad is happy with the overall batting performance of the team in the three-match ODI series against England, despite Sunday’s record 342-run defeat in Southampton, with the series already wrapped up.

He will be hoping that they can carry this form, and their momentum from the previous white-ball series in Australia, into the crucial T20 Internationals against the hosts in Cardiff on Wednesday, Manchester on Friday and Nottingham on Sunday.

Conrad struggled to explain the batting collapse that saw the Proteas skittled for 72 in pursuit of 414.

“I think we were definitely off (on Sunday), and against a top side like England, when you’re not on top of your game you do get exposed the way we did,” he said in his post-match analysis.

“A similar thing happened in Australia where, after going 2-0 up, they got in excess of 400 as well. If we were going to be poor at something, we’d rather be poor at games that aren’t clutch games, without making light of a defeat that we felt was slightly embarrassing.”

The coach feels those results were an aberration, especially considering the form of the South African batters over the two series.

“I’m pretty happy," Conrad insisted.

"The guys like Aiden (Markram), Ricks (Ryan Rickelton), and Trystan (Stubbs) – all these guys had quite a long break, so there was a little bit of rustiness to start off with, but you could see we started running into form.

"I’m pretty happy with the way the batting line-up is stacking up. Matthew Breetzke is playing pretty well, so is Dewald (Brevis), with Stubbo (Stubbs) running into form last week."

Breetzke scored 85 runs and Brevis scored 58 as South Africa clinched the series with a narrow five-run victory at Lord’s in the second match, after a thumping seven-wicket win in the series opener.

Breetzke averaged an impressive 44.5 over the three matches, with a strike rate of 102, as he continued to build on his form in Australia. At Lord’s, he became the first player in men’s ODI history to score fifty-plus runs in his first five innings.

Conrad admitted that the T20 series is the priority on the tour, as part of the build-up to the 2026 World Cup in India and Sri Lanka in February. Wrapping up the series early allowed the Proteas to give bowlers Kagiso Rabada, Marco Jansen and Lungi Ngidi extra time to recover from recent injury niggles, the coach revealed.

“KG, if we really pushed him, we could possibly have forced him through today, but we didn’t want to take any risks with him,” Conrad said, referring to the tours of Pakistan and India.

"The T20 is the priority for us and when we earn the right to give him another rest. We definitely exercise that because with the T20 World Cup looming, we want to make sure that we get a good take on that.

"We’ve got two Test series as well, massive Test series coming up."

The Proteas reached the final of last year’s T20 World Cup in West Indies, where they lost to India, and will be keen to go one step further next year.