World Cup 2019: Jonty Rhodes responds to a fan who felt South Africa missed AB de Villiers in Bangladesh clash

The first surprise in ICC World Cup 2019 is Bangladesh defeating South Africa in its opening match to hand the Proteas their second straight loss. The Tigers batted first and put up 330 runs and restricted the opponents to 309, winning the match by 21 runs and now the African side is struggling to make a comeback.

This loss led to former South Africa batsman and perhaps the greatest fielder in the modern era, Jonty Rhodes to say that this is the time to panic for the national team. Furthermore, the fans mentioned on social media that the team was missing the services of batting great AB de Villiers and injured pacer Dale Steyn and said that if these two were present in the team, there would not have been such a situation where they have lost the first two matches of such an important tournament.

Jonty Rhodes asks fans to move on

AB de Villiers had announced retirement just a year before the 2019 World Cup due to mental pressure and disagreements with the board. Dale Steyn hurt his shoulder during the IPL 2019 appearance for the Royal Challengers Bangalore and during the Bangladesh match, Lungi Ngidi pulled up due to hamstring issues, compounding the case of Proteas further.

A fan said to Jonty Rhodes, “Your country is seeing the lack of ABD and Steyn in the matches”. However, the former cricketer replied that “The whole team can’t rely on 2 players, there is no more ABD. Batsmen got in and got out. Bad shot selection, so many top order players out “bowled” on good batting surface tells a story”

The former Protea cricketer and all-time best fielder opined that fans shouldn’t blame the situation of the team as the team can’t rely on two players. He felt that Du Plessis & Co will bounce back strong to their winning ways. He further mentioned that things will take a while for Proteas to settle down and asked fans to be patient.

Mushfiqur Rahim & Shakib-Al-Hasan scored 78 and 75 respectively. Both stitched a partnership of 140 plus runs put Bangladesh in the driver’s seat and Mahmudullah’s death overs batting supremacy deflated the Proteas bowling. They then picked wickets at regular intervals and even some good innings from Faf du Plessis and JP Duminy failed to take the Proteas team past the finish line.