PROTEAS' coach Mickey Arthur
expressed his satisfaction after his charges completed a 2-0 MTN ODI series win
over Kenya
at the De Beers Diamond Oval on Sunday afternoon.
“I was very pleased with the work
the team has put in over the past week both in the practice nets and in the
matches,” Arthur commented. “There were a lot of positives to take forward. At
the same time each and everyone of us has plenty of room for further
improvement and it would be silly not to acknowledge that.”
Victories by 159 runs at the
OUTsurance Oval in Bloemfontein
on Friday and by seven wickets (with 87 balls to spare) were decisive and once
again emphasised the gap that exists between the top teams on the LG ICC world
rankings and the associate members.
Highlights of Sunday's play
included a superb innings of 78 by Hashim Amla, the stand-in for injured
captain Graeme Smith, and a typically controlled unbeaten knock of 91 from
Jacques Kallis that, coming on top of his 71 in Bloemfontein made him a worthy candidate for
MTN man of the series. It gave him a typically Kallisquian average of more than
160 and can only augur well for what lies ahead.
Amla was named MTN man of the match
not so much for the runs that he scored but for the style in which he made
them. He gave himself 14 balls to assess the opposition and the state of the
pitch before getting off the mark to the 15th. He nevertheless had
no trouble in maintaining a strike rate of more than 100 percent throughout his
innings.
Since he was called into the
Standard Bank ODI squad for the tour to Bangladesh in March, he has taken
to limited overs cricket like a duck to water. This was his first ODI
half-century and there are bound to be many more to follow.
Once again there was much positive
food for thought in the performance of the two spinners, Johan Botha and JP
Duminy, while Johann Louw could be satisfied with his debut performance – the
93rd player to represent Cricket South Africa
in the 50 overs format of the game.
Monde Zondeki, after twice being
warned for running on the pitch in his opening spell, came back very strongly
in his second spell when he got his line and length going and produced some
superb full length deliveries in the 'death' overs stage of the game.
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