South Africa v Sri Lanka ODIs: Five reasons why South Africa failed

1) Inadequate technique to play the spinners

“Watch the ball out of the bowlers hand, wait for the ball and play the ball late”-you would hear any subcontinent coach yell in the nets.

Simple as it may sound, playing spin is an art that comes with years of practice playing in the dustbowls of the sub-continent. The South Africans just don’t seem to have the technique to handle the spinners.

They committed some basic errors like jabbing hard at the ball with hard hands, playing far too early and even worse, were just not able to pick the spinners off the hand.

In Sri Lanka, you have got to expect at least thirty overs of spin being bowled at you. If you are not going to be able to pick them, unfortunately it’s lights out, game over.

Rangana Herath and Ajanta Mendis are surely not complaining.

South Africa had come to Sri Lanka, looking to find answers… They go back with more questions.