We Understood The Necessity Of Us Performing For The Proteas Badge - Mark Boucher Hails South Africa's Test Series Win In West Indies
By Shaan Singh
Published - 22 Jun 2021, 02:58 PM | Updated - 23 Aug 2024, 12:48 AM
South Africa Head coach Mark Boucher expresses his contentment with his side’s dominant performances against West Indies in their 2-0 series win in St Lucia. The Proteas registered their first Test series success away from home since March 2017.
Both the bowlers and the batters stood up to contribute with the fifties, hundreds, and five-fors helping the side come over from their previous loss to Pakistan both home and away. Mark Boucher talks about how the team bonded over a bush-fire sitting, and the work done away from the field to achieve this series win, one which could be the start of a new era under newly-appointed skipper Dean Elgar.
“The new captain asked a couple of questions about where we are and where we are going and where we want to be. Quite a few honest chats came out there as they do around a South African fire at night. The guys all really bought into a process that he wanted to align his reign with,” Mark Boucher, as quoted by ESPNcrininfo, said after the series win.“That’s where we all stood back and said we are either on the bus or not on the bus. Thankfully everyone decided they were on the bus. And it doesn’t only work when you are on the field. A lot of effort has to be put in behind closed doors in the way we train, the way we talk, the language, the confidence. That is probably where it started. At that fire.“It’s not a relief. There’s been a lot of hard work that’s been done behind the scenes. We were working on quite a few technical things and upskilling our players. We understood the necessity of us performing for the Proteas badge and the guys pulled through and played as a strong team,” he added.
Quinton de Kock was the x-factor in the whole series: Mark Boucher
Mark Boucher also expressed his happiness to see Quinton de Kock back amongst runs. The left-hander was awarded the Man of the Series led the run charts with 237 runs. This is soothing de Kock after the torrid time he had as an interim captain – he registered 74 runs in six innings as Test captain against Sri Lanka and Pakistan.
“Quinny been through a tough time of late. He came into this series without as many runs as he would have liked to but the way he has been hitting the balls in the nets and the way he has been off the field has been fantastic.“His chat around the change room is funny and lighthearted and Quinny in that space – it is always going to reflect on the way he plays on the field. The 141 he got the other day, this outfield is very slow, that could have been a 200. The 96 he got was worth 120-130. He was the x-factor in the whole series. I am very happy that Quinny is in a good space at the moment,” Mark Boucher stated.
