Proteas eye bigger picture
DOMINGO: COACH TO TRY OUT SEVERAL COMBINATIONS FOR ODI SERIES South Africa hit the ground running with two wins.
The Proteas will be forgiven if they take on England in three one-day internationals starting tomorrow with one eye firmly on the Champions Trophy. The International Cricket Council’s quadrennial 50-over tournament starts in England next Thursday and the Proteas will prioritise finding the right combinations in the English conditions ahead of a series result.
Proteas coach Russell Domingo indicated ahead of their departure last week that he wants to put as many combinations to the test ahead of the tournament.
Domingo’s main headache will be which all-rounders to include, being blessed with a host of versatile stars in Chris Morris, Andile Phehlukwayo, Dwaine Pretorius and Wayne Parnell.
The Champions Trophy title might not be as prestigious as the World Cup or World Twenty20, but the tournament will nonetheless provide an excellent opportunity for AB de Villiers’ team to test their title aspirations for 2019, when England host the World Cup.
They have three group matches to contend with against India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka and will need to win two knockout matches in their quest to win only their second major trophy after being successful at the inaugural event in 1998.
De Villiers, who missed the Proteas’ two warm-up matches with a respiratory tract infection, confessed just how badly he wants a big trophy.” I haven’t won one of these trophies in my career, so I’m pretty desperate to win one, and we’ll do anything we can to come out on top,” said De Villiers.
“We know these tournaments are very competitive – there are eight teams that want to win it but we do think we’ve got a very good squad here. I’ve got a good feeling about this one.
“But first things first, we want to win the series against England.”
Despite not having played international cricket for almost two months and only a handful of the squad being involved in the Indian Premier League, the Proteas showed little ring rust in their opening two tour matches.
In their first match on Friday, a 66-run win in a rain-deduced match against Sussex in Hove, Quinton de Kock (104) and JP Duminy (68) made healthy contributions with the bat, while Hashim Amla, Faf du Plessis and David Miller all scored half-centuries and Farhaan Behardien made 33 in the 13-run win against Northamptonshire in Northampton on Sunday, meaning that everyone in the top order apart from De Villiers has runs under the belt.
Parnell also staked his claim for one of the all-rounder berths by scoring 62 while opening the batting with De Kock in Hove, while all the bowlers also enjoyed a good workout, with left-arm spinner Keshav Maharaj taking 2/31 in his one-day debut for the Proteas on Friday.