'Rilee could have smashed those' - Kobus Olivier surprised over South Africa's decision to open with Temba Bavuma

Kobus Olivier has said that South Africa missed the trick by not promoting the explosive batter Rilee Rossouw up the order to open the innings along with Quinton de Kock in their rain-curtailed ICC T20 World Cup 2022 encounter against Zimbabwe at the Bellerive Oval in Hobart on October 24. 

Olivier said that the Proteas would have been easily sitting comfortably with two points instead of one after the match was forced to be abandoned due to rain with South Africa being extremely close to a 10-wicket win. 

South Africa would have had two points instead of one: Kobus Olivier

"I was surprised when (Temba) Bavuma walked out to open the batting with Quinton de Kock. I think with these nine overs, they should have opened with De Kock and Rilee Rossouw. Rilee Rossouw is normally an opening batter and he can bat the same way as De Kock. Had Rilee Rossouw opened the batting with De Kock, those three-four balls which Bavuma took for ones, Rilee could have smashed four sixes as well," said Kobus Olivier while speaking on 'BatBricks7 presents Run Ki Runneeti' on CricTracker.

"And they were 13 runs short. So in hindsight, if Rilee Rossouw had opened and hit those balls then South Africa would have maybe won the game. So, it was a surprise to me that Bavuma opened in this game. I personally did not think that they would have opened with him," he added. 

Quinton de Kock single-handedly threatened to take the game away from Zimbabwe, chasing 80 runs from the stipulated nine overs. Bavuma, on the other hand, only scored two runs off two deliveries and was just a silent spectator witnessing De Kock's carnage. 

When rain gods intervened in the second over of the chase, the Proteas' job became easier as they had to chase a revised target of 64 runs from seven overs. Unfortunately for them, the rain reappeared and did not stop as the contest had to be abandoned with both teams sharing the spoils.