South Africa U-19 YODI tour to Bangladesh.
A few questions the team may need to answer heading into the next U-19 World Cup.
It may be dark every two or four hours in the country and there may be insufficient water from time to time but, there will always be cricket talent in abundance. Some of this talent, to this day, remains untapped. However, that is not what we will be talking about today. The South African U-19 cricket side toured to Bangladesh not so long ago and whoever watched any of those games can agree with me that, South Africa continues to produce cricket talent every year. It remains completely different what that talent turns into in the end.
A new group of Under 19 cricketers with a few old faces was picked to tour Bangladesh in preparation for the next U-19 world cup. With a new coach in charge, well he is not entirelynew because he was part of the coaching staff previously. However, with Coach Malibongwe Maketa appointed head coach of the side, we would obviously see some difference as every coach has his own identity, playing style and coaching philosophy. I am one of the people who were paying close attention to this new group because I had been following the majority of the players for a year or so. I was looking forward to seeing their growth, development and how they do once they make the SA U19 side. This series against Bangladesh provided me with exactly that. I had to wake up early a couple of times though, but cricket is always worth it.
The squad assembled in Pretoria for its last preparation a week or so before jetting off to Bangladesh. The Youth One Day International series between the South African boys and the Bangladeshi boys proved exciting and a bit frustrating at times for someone watching, with the rain delays in a couple of matches, especially the first match which jumped over to a reserve day. A few decisions in terms of selection and approach,as well, but we all know coaches can never make all of us happy. The tour proved challenging for the boys as well and these challenges could very well have prepared them for their whole cricket careers. From facing some challenging spin bowling, the hot and humid weather of Bangladesh which saw the boys need cooling towels from time to time and the obvious one, different time zones of which most if not all of them would've been accustomed to. Above all this, the boys really gave their all throughout the 5 matches and they fought till the match.
As far as the next world cup is concerned, there were a number of questions that were raised by this series regardless of the result not being worrying. A 3-2 series loss reads better than a whitewash we suffered the last time we toured the country. A few questions I think need to be answered before we can say the team is ready for a world cup are:
1. Captaincy – David Teeger and Juan James shared the captaincy with Teeger captaining the first two YODIs and James the last 3. This is not a big one but important, nonetheless. Going forward, it will be important for consistency and continuity that the team has a captain that everyone knows. This is also something I highlight because of the notable difference in decision making of the two gents. I do not know how much involved the coach was in terms of on-field decision making but both boys made decisions when they were captains that I felt the other would not have made. Decisions that could easily be match losing. You also want whoever is captain to get used to the role and own it.
2. Seam attack – The seam attack has a very much capable leader in Kwena Maphaka but one could not help but get the feeling that there was some over reliance on what Kwena can do, what Kwena can bring. It was a matter of the other seamers not having the presence of Kwena and sometimes not bowling well. Someone like Tristan Luus has all the makings of a leader of an attack and is even quicker than Kwena but lacks the consistency and accuracy to support Kwena accordingly. He did pick up 4 wickets in one of the matches though but even that day, his bowling was not consistent. The team could use an extra seamer or an allrounder who is a solid seam bowler. In the last game, the team definitely needed a specialist seamer or two but instead we had two allrounders opening the bowling.
3. Romashan Pillay – Many of us were constantly left wondering what Romashan Pillay’s role in the team was but it seems he was being used more as a bowler and this was mind boggling. Romashan was the best batter at Cubs week and one of the best batters in schoolboy cricket, scoring runs for fun. Seeing him come in at 7 was frustrating because he was not being used to best effect. He was being used more with the ball than bat and the truth is that we will never be able to compete with Pillay playing as a frontline seamer as we saw in the last game. He is not a bad bowler but not a frontline bowler either. This was visible a number of times in the series.
4. Overall combinations – One can understand the rotation of players because the idea was to give everyone a chance but having a rotation policy does not have to affect the balance of the side the way in which it affected the side. In the last YODI, we played with just two frontline bowlers in Potsane and Alder. We also had our wicket keeper batting at 10 having batted at 8. A lot of questions around the balance and composition of the side. As I stated above, the side is a seamer short, and it also became evident that the side is also short of a batter who can take the game on in the middle order.
With all that being said, the boys really showed a lot of fight whenever they needed to. The batting can definitely improve in terms of application, temperament and overall short selection. There were a number of soft dismissals throughout the series. The spinners will be key in the next world cup so hopefully we see Esa and Sipho get more game time. Esa and Sipho both showed great potential with the ball and will be key for the side going into the world cup. (Alder will not qualify to go the U19 world cup).
We may have not won the series but seeing guys like Thebe Gazide being given a chance and scoring a beautiful 50, Lhua-ndre doing well as well at the top, Kwena, Luus and Alder picking up 4 –fars and captain David Teeger batting really well at 3 for the team was good to witness.
I am sure the coaching stuff is happy with the strides that the boys have made and the plan now would be to make sure that the boys are doing something. Maybe a few camps every now and then and the Division two T20 tournament title defence.
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