It was ‘Mission Accomplished’ when the Proteas drew their day-night practice match against a CA XI team in Adelaide.
The batsmen particularly benefited from seeing how the ball reacted as day tuned into night; valuable experience to take into their day-night Test against Australia on Nov 24.
For the record, the bowlers all had a run, each bowling a maximum of six overs and five of them taking two wickets apiece to bowl out the invitation side for just 103. The down side of that was that their innings did not last into the twilight, so they wwre not able to experience the changing conditions.
At least that enabled the batsmen to have another go, following their 415 in the first innings, and this time Rilee Rossouw, who was out for eight in his first effort, occupied the crease usefully, surging to 77 off 84 balls (9×4, 3×6) before he retired. The Proteas ran up 181-5 before calling it a day.
The bowlers may have to reconsider their strategy. Kyle Abbott indicated that swing was much reduced after the lights came on, but the ball still nipped off the pitch to good effect.
‘There is a bit of grass on the wicket, so there has been a little bit of assistance throughout the match if you hit the deck hard and get in the right areas,’ said Abbott. ‘There wasn’t a huge amount of swing, just some nip off the surface.
‘I don’t think it’s up to us to adjust, it’s more the batsmen,’ he added. ”A ball is a ball to us, if it swings or doesn’t it’s still the same thing. For us to adjust is not that difficult but I think for the batsmen under the lights will take some getting used to.’
The focus moves on to preparation for the first Test starting in Perth on Nov 3. The Proteas play a two-day warm-up match against a South Australia Cricket Association XI, starting on Thursday.
Photo: Muzi Ntombela/Backpagepix
