Chastened SA A side return from Aussie thumping
AS AN exercise in getting good, hard match play under their belts, the individuals involved in the South Africa A side against Australia A, who will also participate in the Test series against New Zealand next week, will be pleased. Their confidence, however, has taken a hit.
There is no point sugar-coating it. South Africa A were thumped by their Australian counterparts.
They were beaten by 197 runs in the first match in Brisbane, and then by 10 wickets in Townsville yesterday.
Stephen Cook, the South Africa A captain, Dean Elgar, Wayne Parnell, Dane Piedt, Vernon Philander and Temba Bavuma will all arrive back home today, better for having got some match play under their belts, but chastened, too.
Next week they’ll hook up with the rest of the Test side before the first match against Kane Williamson’s Black Caps in Durban, hoping that a change in environment and opponents will lead to a change in fortunes.
Cricket South Africa had hoped for better – from a results perspective – from the side. The team were given two matches in Zimbabwe to shake off the winter cobwebs and, although travel was frantic with some players getting to Brisbane only a day before the first match owing to having to be present at Cricket SA’s awards, the fact that so many individuals failed to live up to standards is concerning.
It can be hard for players to bond in “A” matches because teams are so rapidly put together, but that only emphasises the importance of individuals making an impression, which is something the Australians managed.
Australia A players scored two hundreds and six half-centuries, while their bowlers picked up three “fivers”.
For South Africa A there were six half-centuries, with Stiaan van Zyl’s 85 in the first match in Brisbane the highest individual score. No bowler claimed more than three wickets in an innings for South Africa A.
Among the Test squad members, Elgar performed steadily with the bat, scoring 133 runs in the two matches, but Cook and Bavuma struggled, the former managing one half-century and the latter a best score of 21 in four innings.
Off-spinner Dane Piedt will have been grateful for a lengthy workout – 62.5 overs across the two matches – while Philander played only in Brisbane, a likely consequence of workload management before the series against the Kiwis and later assignments in Australia and at home against Sri Lanka.
All-rounder Andile Phehlukwayo did the most to enhance his claims for higher honours, with some solid, though far from spectacular, displays over the two matches.
However, at just 20 years old, and with only one full season of professional cricket under his belt, his progress has been very good and will only be enhanced by his experience Down Under.
Phehlukwayo scored the third highest number of runs – 115, which included a half-century in the first match in Brisbane – and claimed five wickets, including 3/70 in Townsville.
It would come as little surprise were he to feature in one of the Proteas’ limited-overs squads at some stage in the 2016/17 season.