Proteas need to stop this hogwash

If SA had Mark Boucherphoria when the former wicketkeeper took over the coaching job in December, what remained of it dissipated in the heat of a disciplined Australian performance at the Wanderers on Friday.

When Mitchell Starc detonated Quinton de Kock's middle stump, the quantifiable De Kock delight suddenly fizzled in the humid Johannesburg air.

The Proteas have plumbed various depths over the course of the past year, but a record T20 loss in terms of runs against Australia is gut-wrenching. It's stomach-turning. It's bile-inducing. It's unpalatable.

It's unimaginable that SA can be so indecorously ambushed by a team that only a year ago was the doormat of international cricket. While there's incremental improvement in the England ODI and T20 series, Friday's gormless capitulation undid all of that hard work.

It shouldn't have happened the way it did, where it did, but indeed it did. The Wanderers was the coliseum where the Proteas were the emperors who were rudely denuded in front of a disbelieving crowd.

Boucher, who captained the Proteas to their worst yet Test loss (innings and 360 runs) against Australia at the same ground nearly 18 years ago, will know Australia tend to use a home team's biggest stage to make them look amateurish. Australia's coach Justin Langer knows all about this.

He played in that 2002 Wanderers Test where SA were toyed with like a half-eaten burger by a sated toddler. The 107-run loss, SA's worst in T20 cricket since 2006 when they first played the format, forced Boucher to admit they've got some serious thinking to do with their T20 World Cup combination.

SA were bowled out for their lowest T20 total yet (87). October's World Cup may seem far away, but today's second T20 at St George's Park is one of seven Boucher has to get his team back into shape. "If you're trying to pinpoint guys going to the World Cup based on these performances, then we're going to have to re-look that. There are certain places that are up for grabs and with these guys getting opportunities, they have to make the most of them.

We have to get back on the horse and understand we were up against a very good team

—  Proteas coach Mark Boucher 

The plan is that a month or so before the tournament, we want to have our minds on who we want to take," Boucher said."It's difficult for players to make a name for themselves a month before the tournament, so now is the time for the players to stake a claim for the positions.

There are still positions up for grabs and we don't quite know what our combinations are going to be at this particular stage. We're waiting for guys to step up and, hopefully, those combinations will spell it out for us."

Boucher tried to play down the nature of the defeat and how they need to bounce back, but the sharp regression from a competitive edge perspective can't be ignored.

"We have to trust the system that we have. We're working very hard off the field and we understand the areas we need to improve in. We were way below par and it showed in the result. We have to get back on the horse and understand we were up against a very good team," Boucher said.