Johannesburg – Despite South Africa's third victory in a row over Pakistan in T20 Internationals, captain Faf du Plessis is concerned about batting Henry Davids out of position.
Davids who opens for the Titans and has been in good form this season, has had two failures in national colours batting out of position in the middle order.
Last week in Dubai, Davids came in at number six and was out for a duck off his second ball, and on Wednesday at the Wanderers he made just three from five deliveries.
“It's tough for Henry Davids, You've got to feel for him,” said Du Plessis after his side's four run win courtesy of the Duckworth/Lewis method at the Bullring.
“He's opened all his career and to go from opening to the middle against a team like Pakistan with the spinners they have is really tough.
“It will still make him a better player, it's quite tough and very unfair.”
The best partnership of the match came from a 72 run stand between Proteas openers Hashim Amla (31) and Quinton de Kock (43).
De Kock in particular looked as if he was growing into the role of an aggressive opening batsman, and complemented the more measured Amla up front.
For Davids, it was bad news as it looked unlikely he would get a chance at the opening birth.
Du Plessis said it would be up to Davids to be able to adapt to any position in the batting order.
“Even if it comes to a situation in the World Cup if someone gets injured, you have to be flexible in batting anywhere.
“I think Henry will take a lot from this. He's a quality player and fantastic striker, and he's definitely in our plans. So we don't see these last couple of low scores as anything negative.”
Pakistan captain Mohammad Hafeez, meanwhile, took heart from his side's narrow loss to the Proteas.
“Again luck is not on Pakistan's side,” said Hafeez after the match.
“We were very much on target even though SA had a plan. I thought they made an under par score, I thought 165 was about par. But these things (the weather) are not under your control.” – Sapa