SA U19 coach, Lawrence Mahatlane, says he felt hurt after their 3-2 series defeat against World Champions West Indies. 

The junior Proteas suffered a narrow defeat in Durban on Wednesday, as they failed to chase down their 245-run target to fall just two runs short.

Their chase seemed straightforward after a Matthew Breetzke ton off 114 balls, which put the hosts on the front foot at 206-2 by the 44th over. A collapse followed as the defending champions fought back, throttling SA, who ended on 242-7 after their 50 overs.

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Mahatlane was devastated with his side’s defeat.

‘It’s a bitter pill to swallow,’ Mahatlane said afterwards.

‘I think we got into a position where we should have won the game, but unfortunately West Indies bowled really well at the back end of the innings, and all credit to them for that.

‘For us, we just made some silly errors, some real schoolboy stuff, and it’s something that unfortunately throughout the series stands out.’

It was a second ton in three innings for Breetzke, who also hit a half-century in the series, while there were also good performances from the likes of Raynard van Tonder and Jiveshan Pillay with the bat.

The likes of Kgaudise Molefe, Thando Ntini and Jade de Klerk excelled with the ball.

‘There were also a lot of good things that the young men did,’ Mahatlane said.

‘I thought some of the bowling and batting throughout the series can give us some good confidence going forward, not only to the England series, but also the World Cup.’

Mahatlane is hoping his team will take the lessons from this series forward and improve for their next assignment.

‘We got an idea of areas to improve and areas to work on over the next four months, and hopefully we can get it right and really pull it through,’ he added.

‘After this loss, there’s a lot of hurt in the change room because we know we had a lot of opportunities through this series.’

Photo: Debiky/Gallo Images