Hendricks, Rickelton see Proteas through

IRE: 171/8 (Curtis Campher 49, Neil Rock 37, Patrick Kruger 4/27)

SA: 174/2 (Ryan Rickelton 76, Reeza Hendricks 51, Craig Young 1/25)

South Africa got off to a winning start in Abu Dhabi as they beat Ireland by eight wickets in the first match at the Sheikh Zayed Cricket Stadium last night.

Courtesy of a 136-run opening partnership between Ryan Rickelton (76, 3x6, 6x6) and Reeza Hendricks (51, 5x3, 3x6), the Proteas men’s team won their first T20I match after losing the T20 World Cup final to India earlier this year.

Coming off a dry, spin-friendly surface in Sharjah last week, the Proteas were served familiar conditions in Abu Dhabi as the wicket had a nice covering of green grass.

As a result, the Proteas fielded two frontline seamers in Ottneil Baartman and Lizaad Williams, and had Wiaan Mulder and Patrick Kruger in the XI as well as additional seam options.

With such a playing XI, Proteas captain Aiden Markram did not hesitate to bowl first when he won the toss.

After not catching a single game during the historic series defeat to Afghanistan in Sharjah, Williams was given the new ball last night and immediately leaked 16 runs off the opening over courtesy of a series of clean strikes from batter Ross Adair.

At the opposite end, Wiaan Mulder had a better start to his spell as he stopped Adair (18) in his tracks, setting the batter up to hit straight to Tristan Stubbs’ safe hands at long-on to hand South Africa their first scalp of the day.

Baartman also had a good start with the ball as he clean bowled Ireland captain Paul Stirling (1), however the home side kept the scoreboard ticking and put together a healthy 63/2 in the first powerplay.

While the Proteas bowling attack had a slight edge over the hosts, they let opportunities go to waste as Baartman dropped Curtis Campher on 17 while wicketkeeper Rickelton was slow to stump Neil Rock when he was on 10.

While Campher (49) and Rock (37) capitalised on South Africa’s mistakes, all-rounder Kruger (4/27) stunned the hosts with three wickets in the last over of the innings to restrict them to 171/8.

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Openers Rickelton and Hendricks took the momentum into the chase, taking their time to acclimatise to the wicket before shifting gears and taking the Proteas to 58/0 in the first powerplay.

Despite being five runs short of Ireland’s 63/2 in their first powerplay, South Africa had not lost a wicket and thus had an advantage heading into the middle overs.

Rickelton assumed the role of an aggressor as he smacked sixes over the mid-wicket boundary. The left-handed batter cruised to his maiden T20I half-century, taking only 30 balls to reach the milestone and allowed the off-form Hendricks to find his groove.

It did not take too long before the stylish right-handed Hendricks started carving boundaries over cover and asserted his dominance over the Irish attack.

The 35-year-old reached his 16th T20I half-century off only 31 deliveries and from there on the opening pair did not take the foot off the gas.

Apart from Matthew Humphreys’ economical 0/28, a three-over spell that saw the spinner concede only two fours and one six, all the other Irish bowlers were taken to the cleaners by Proteas opening batters.

By the time seam bowler Craig Young (1/) trapped Hendricks (51, 5x4, 3x6) LBW, the game was too far gone as South Africa only needed 36 off 42 deliveries to win the match.

Even after claiming the wicket of Rickelton (76, 3/4, 6x6), there was no way to crawl back into the game for Ireland as Matthew Breetzke (19*) and Markram (17*) saw the Proteas home with 14 balls to spare.