Keshav Maharaj: 'We are very inexperienced, but it's not an excuse'

They currently trail a five-match T20I series 2-1 against New Zealand, with many first-choice players missing from their squad

Firdose Moonda

Published: Mar 20, 2026, 11:17 AM (3 hrs ago)

Inexperience and an inability to adapt to different conditions quickly enough is why South Africa find themselves chasing the series in New Zealand, according to stand-in captain Keshav Maharaj. His side are 2-1 down, with two matches left to play. While the scoreline is anything but alarmist, the manner of their defeats could be cause for concern.

After bowling New Zealand out for 91 in game one, South Africa were dismissed for 107 in game two, chasing 176. They were then held to 136 for 9 in game three. In the last two games, only George Linde has scored an individual score over 30, which speaks to how stop-and-start South Africa's batting has been.

But, there are caveats. Two of their top six, Connor Esterhuizen and Dian Forrester, are on their first tour. There are also only 33 T20I caps between Wiaan Mulder, Tony de Zorzi, Jason Smith and Rubin Hermann.

"We are very inexperienced so you can understand the inconsistencies, but it's not an excuse," Maharaj said at the post-match press conference. "We're all professional enough; we are representing our country, so we've just got to go look back at ourselves and find ways through it. We have to put away our egos when it comes to playing on these types of wickets, because it doesn't allow you to play with the freedom that you want at times. I wouldn't use it as an excuse, even though we have a very inexperienced squad. Guys are professional enough and mature enough to find ways to combat it."

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Pre-match talk, and sometimes even game day conversation - as was the case in the second match, when the women's teams said the surface was a "belter" - have made conditions seem good for run-scoring. South Africa have experienced the opposite. Sometimes, they have been undone by good bounce; other times, they have found deliveries sticking in the surface. The word "two-paced" has come up a lot in describing the pitches, and Maharaj went as far as to call Auckland's "spicy". He said South Africa had misjudged their targeting of the short boundary.

All of South Africa's batters were dismissed trying to go for big shots, which disappointed Maharaj. "It's definitely something we discussed… They felt like the only way was to target the short boundary, but it was a bit disappointing to say the least," he said. "Conversations we had prior to coming into this game were about the short boundary. Our coaching staff mentioned that teams that look too much into the short boundary actually shoot themselves in the foot, and that's exactly what happened with us today."

Add to that the quality of New Zealand's attack, and things have been made doubly difficult for South Africa. Across the series so far, four of New Zealand's bowlers - Lockie Ferguson, Zak Foulkes, Mitchell Santner and Ben Sears - have conceded at under six runs an over, while only one South African, Gerald Coetzee, has done the same. That may speak to Coetzee's experience in T20s, which includes stints at IPL and the MLC, but also to the struggles South Africa have had in adjusting their game plans when conditions haven't turned out as well as expected. "We really need to find a sort of way to combat these bowlers and adapt to the conditions sooner rather than later," Maharaj said.

South Africa don't have much wriggle room within their line-up. They have no reserve batters in the squad, now that Jordan Hermann is out with a hamstring injury. They are using makeshift openers in Wiaan Mulder - who had never opened in T20Is before this - while in the third game, they also moved Tony de Zorzi up to No. 1.

Still, their promotions may not be an indication of how things will shape up in future. "At the start, obviously Tony was set up to bat three and then Jordan got injured, so he had to go up," Maharaj explained. "Shuks (Shukri Conrad, head coach) is obviously trying something with Wiaan but it's more an experiment rather than something cast in stone… [It is] just to see the depth in the squad and see what we have from a balance and ability point of view."

The only two members of the squad who have yet to play are seam bowling allrounder Andile Simelane and offspin bowling allrounder Prenalan Subrayen. More important for South Africa is that whichever eleven takes the field for the remainder of the series will not have to contend with Santner, Ferguson or Devon Conway, as they are now being rested.

Maharaj sees the gap that may be present between the performances and expectations of his players, but he also wants them to do better. "Hopefully we can see a little bit of positives from that, but I think it's about focusing on ourselves and how we're going to go about our games," he said. "As much as the opposition changes, we're searching for the template as to how to go about our business."

Firdose Moonda is ESPNcricinfo's correspondent for South Africa and women's cricket

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