Temba Bavuma has slammed South Africa’s bowling at the death in the fourth T20 International against the West Indies on Thursday.

Battling first, the hosts were in trouble at 101/6 in the 16th over, but the Proteas conceded 66 runs in the last four over with West Indies captain Kieron Pollard the destroyer in chief as they posted a competitive 167 for the Proteas to chase.

The Proteas failed to reach the target with the bat and finished on 146/9 as the West Indies secured a 21-run victory to level the series 2-2.

But despite the poor batting, Bavuma put the loss squarely on the bowlers’ inadequacy to wrap up the West Indies tail.

“On the bowling front to concede 20 up front will put you under pressure whether you’re bowling first or bowling second; you finish off your bowling innings like that and it doesn’t matter when you’re bowling. To concede 60 in the last four is criminal,” Bavuma said of his teammates’ bowling.

“These guys are experienced, they are playing in conditions they know back to front and we’ve seen a display of their skill and how they’ve been able to adapt and really put our batters under pressure,” he added about the hosts’ effort with the ball.

Bavuma says they have a lot of bowlers within the squad and will make a decision on whether to change their established pace attack.

“With the bowling resources we have, we have to definitely look at those guys and see what role they can play,” said Bavuma.

“Sisanda (Magala) is struggling with an ankle niggle at the moment, he isn’t up for selection. Lizaad (Williams) and Beuran (Hendricks) come into the picture but we’ll see what team we finalise for Saturday.”

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