South Africa coach Russell Domingo has returned home from his side’s ongoing tour of England, on an account of a family emergency back home in South Africa.
With the second T20I set to be played on Friday at Taunton, the Proteas are staring at a series defeat, after already being 0-1 down in the three-match T20I encounter. The first game was a one-sided affair which England won comprehensively by nine wickets at the Rose Bowl in Southampton.
With Domingo heading back home, it is likely that the batting consultant and former opener Neil McKenzie could take over as the interim coach. With the side already missing the services of regular T20I captain Faf du Plessis, there will be added burden on the shoulders of AB de Villiers to lead from the front. A loss on Friday would mean another series defeat for South Africa, having already lost the ODI’s 2-1.
Post the crushing defeat in the first T20I, de Villiers was optimistic about his team coming back to form in the second game.
“It’s not done and dusted. We go to Taunton and like all South Africans we always fight our way back so I’m expecting a really good performance in the next one,” de Villiers said.
“The result doesn’t look good for us,” said de Villiers. “We lost our way in the first six overs, had to rebuild and that cost us a bit. From the 13th over I tried to have a go. We were looking for those 10 runs an over and didn’t get a lot of them, unfortunately.”
After the three-match T20I series, the two sides will clash in a mouth-watering four-match Test series, which will mark the captaincy debut of England’s new Test skipper Joe Root. The Test series commences in the first week of July.