Despite losing to Afghanistan and drawing with Ireland in their two limited overs series, Proteas coach Rob Walter said breeding new talent and depth in South African cricket was the main goal.
SA lost to Ireland in the second T20 International (T20I) on Sunday in Abu Dhabi, which meant they drew the two-match series 1-1.
That came after a 2-1 series defeat to Afghanistan in a One-Day International (ODI) series in Sharjah earlier this month.
The SA squads selected to do duty against Afghanistan and Ireland are majorly inexperienced, with star players like David Miller, Heinrich Klaasen, Kagiso Rabada, Tabraiz Shamsi and Keshav Maharaj all given time off.
Despite losing to Afghanistan and drawing with Ireland in their two limited overs series, Proteas coach Rob Walter said breeding new talent and depth in South African cricket was the main goal.
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Opportunities abound
It’s opened the door for players like Tristan Stubbs to fill a more senior role, while others like Matthew Breetzke, Jason Smith and Ryan Rickelton build on their experience at international level.
“That’s the thing about giving opportunities ultimately. It’s all done with the best intentions. You’ve got to give guys opportunity and exposure to good opposition to see where they stand, to give them an insight as to what they need to work on,” said Walter.
“As a team we didn’t achieve the results in any way that we were hoping to. We came up against some stiff opposition along the way but still, games that we would expect to win. We didn’t manage to get done.
“However, there are a bunch of young cricketers who played some good opposition, played some good cricket, learnt a lot and hopefully the learning now turns into performance.”
The second T20I against Ireland, saw the Proteas give a good account of themselves in pursuit of a massive 196 to win.
The top three of Rickelton (36), Reeza Hendricks (51) and Breetzke (51) scored 138 of those runs, but as no other Proteas batsman made double figures they were always going to fall short- in the end by 10 runs.
Walter was left frustrated with the manner of their defeat.
“Obviously it’s massively disappointing. I suppose in a way that is T20 cricket, things can turn around quite quickly. It takes a dominant performance from one person in the opposition that can put you behind the eight ball. But still, we should have got over the line tonight, no doubt about that.
“I thought we clawed ourselves back in the field excellently while the bowlers bowled very well at the death. I think we can’t fault the effort in the field. We made a few errors out there, but certainly the effort was there and then with the bat we were in a great position to win the game.
“We could have been a bit more clinical, but also I felt that they did execute their death plans very well and made it tough for us to get it done.”
Next up for Walter and his Proteas side will be a three-match ODI series in Abu Dhabi against Ireland, starting on Wednesday.
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