A David Miller century allowed SA A to cruise past NPS in their Quadrangular clash on Wednesday.
Miller, who was dropped for the Tri-Nation series in June, has made a huge statement regarding his inclusion in the Proteas squad. His match-winning ton followed a fluent 90 earlier in the tournament against India A, making it very tough for the selectors to leave him out of the upcoming ODI series against Australia.
NPS gathered themselves well after losing the early wicket of Renshaw (16) in the third over, with a century partnership between Caleb Jewell (62) and Sam Heazlett (73) putting on 115 runs between them. They looked quite comfortable until left-arm orthodox bowler Aaron Phangiso got the breakthrough, Heazlett falling on a well-played 73 (six fours and four sixes).
Jewell did well to stick around and reach his half-century, before his partnership with Hilton Cartwright was put to an end just one shy of a 50. Jewell fell shortly after that on 64, and NPS struggled to string together partnerships, the 44-run innings by Matthew Short being the only other stand-out performance. NPS set a target of 287-7 after their 50 overs.
The SA A bowlers did well to spread out the wicket-taking duties, Tabraiz Shamsi the pick of the bowlers with 2-66 in his 10 overs.
SA A got of to a contrasting start, with a 50-run partnership between between Reeza Hendricks (31) and Khaya Zondo (18), before Hendricks and Zondo fell in quick succession, bringing David Miller to the crease.
Despite losing his partner De Bruyn (9) shortly after his introduction, Miller strung together two decent partnerships with Qaasim Adams (44) and Dane Vilas (45) . Miller’s 91-run partnership with Adams was vital to help him past the 50 mark, but it was his unbeaten century partnership with Vilas which helped Miller reach an entertaining 124 off 107 balls (nine 4s and six 6s) which included a boundary and a double by Vilas to clinch the victory.
SA A won the match convincingly by five wickets with 21 balls still remaining.
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