T20 series – last chance for selection

If you did not know South Africa were starting a T20 series against Sri Lanka at the Newlands Stadium in Cape Town on Tuesday‚ you might not have been any the wiser after Ottis Gibson’s media conference on Monday.

That is no fault of Gibson‚ who spoke two days after SA had completed a 5-0 whitewash of the Lankans in the one-day series.

More importantly‚ 10 weeks and three days – or 73 days‚ or even 1,752 hours – before Faf du Plessis’s team take on England at the Oval in the opening match of the World Cup.

“The one-day series gave us a good look at some players‚” Gibson said in Cape Town.

“Obviously the result is quite pleasing in terms of confidence and momentum and all that sort of stuff.”

Gibson saw 16 players bat and 10 bowl.

He watched Quinton de Kock and Faf du Plessis score centuries – and more than half of SA’s runs in the series – a reassuring half-century for Aiden Markram and a fourth 50 in eight career innings for Rassie van der Dussen.

Imran Tahir took nine wickets at an average of 13.00 and an economy rate of 3.44‚ making him the rubber’s leading bowler in all those categories.

Anrich Nortjé made his debut‚ played in all but one of the games and took his chance and

‘So there’s still an opportunity if somebody comes and does something unbelievable in the next couple of games’ Ottis Gibson

PROTEAS HEAD COACH

eight scalps at 18.75 and 4.76.

“We would have liked some more performances from other players,” Gibson said.

“But we’re a lot further down the road than we were two months ago.

“First and foremost you’d want to pick on form.

“But if there’s no form to go with, you have to look at reputation‚ I guess.”

What relevance could three T20s hold, what with a World Cup squad coming in the next few weeks?

Gibson said he wanted his team to “continue the form that we’ve had” at Newlands on Tuesday‚ in Centurion on Friday and at the Wanderers on Sunday. He also said the door was not shut.

“So there’s still an opportunity if somebody comes and does something unbelievable in the next couple of games.”