The South Africa Emerging Squad arrives back home on Tuesday after a highly successful tour of Sri Lanka where they won the unofficial three-match Test series 1-0 and the unofficial ODI series 2-1.
The squad consisted entirely of members of the National Academy based at the High Performance Centre In Pretoria.
One of the stars of the tour was Cape Cobras fast bowler Tshepo Moreki who produced an inspirational spell of death bowling to clinch the ODI Series in the deciding match on Monday.
Sri Lanka were very much in with a chance of victory going into the final 10 overs when they were up with the run-rate and had wickets in hand before Moreki took 3-16 in three overs to finish with figures of 4-52 from his nine overs. He was well supported by Corbin Bosch who finished with 3-55.
The other stars of South Africa’s final victory were Aiden Markram (92 off 105 balls, 10 fours and a six) and Zubayr Hamza (95 not out off 102 balls, 8 fours and 2 sixes) who set up the total of 282-5 after they had lost the toss. The pair put on 110 for the second wicket in 20 overs.
Moreki also played a key role in the Test series win, taking four wickets in each innings in the one match to achieve a result. He finished the series with 12 wickets at 12.25.
In the unofficial ODI series, Moreki took five wickets in the second match when South Africa routed Sri Lanka for 88 after the latter won the toss and decided to bat first. In all he took 11 wickets in the three matches at an average of 10.45 with an economy rate under 5.
Both Markram and Bosch were part of the South Africa side that won the Under-19 World Cup last year when Markram was named Player of the Series and Bosch Player of the Final and they again showed their ability to perform in a pressure match in the final ODI.
‘This has been a highly successful tour for our emerging players,’ CSA Chief Executive, Haroon Lorgat, said.
The team is coached by former Cape Cobras man Shukri Conrad.
‘Touring Sri Lanka is challenging and most of them have little or no experience playing in the sub-continent,’ continued Lorgat.
‘These experiences and results bode well for their future and reflects positively on the excellent work being done through our talent identification and pipeline development programmes.
‘Many of these players will be in action in the Africa T20 Cup next month and their progress will be followed very closely as they rub shoulders with some of our best franchise and international players.’
