The Proteas women went down in the second ODI, young Titans batsman is a future Protea and the SA U19 cricket side is nominated for team of the year.
Proteas women vs India
India produced a much improved performance to beat South Africa by six wickets in Bangalore to level the three-match series 1-1.
The visitors batted first and looked to have posted a defendable score on a slow track. Mignon du Preez scored a very patient 36, before the heroine from the first ODI, Chloe Tryon, once again showed her stroke-making ability at No 7. She smashed an unbeaten 49 off just 34 balls to take the side to 186-8 in their allotted overs.
The South Africans would have been confident at the break after dismissing India for not much more than 100 at the same venue a couple days earlier. However, the top order proved rock solid with Poonam Raut, Shikha Pandey and Harmanpreet Kaur contributing 47, 59 and 42 not out, respectively.
Despite Dane van Niekerk’s tidy spell of 1-29 in 8.4 overs, the Indians cruised to victory with 32 balls remaining.
De Bruyn is a future Protea
Titans coach Rob Walter is convinced his young top order batsman Theunis de Bruyn will one day play on the international stage.
‘Can he play for the Proteas, is he good enough? There’s no doubt he is,’ Walter said of the former South Africa U19 player.
‘He’s been good. If you score 150 not out in a one-day game you must have something special. To score two hundreds and a sixty in five games meant he was really in a good space,’ said Walter of De Bruyn’s incredible start to domestic cricket.
Despite the incredible form shown by the hard-hitting No 3, Walter has warned against pushing him too quickly.
‘For his sake I hope so, but for his development not,’ said Walter on the prospect of De Bruyn being included in the Proteas side in the near future.
‘He’s got some work to do and I don’t think it would be fair on him right now.
‘I don’t think there is any doubt about his potential but it would be nice to see people allow him to progress properly and score tons of runs at franchise level and then make the progression to the national side.’
SA U19 nominated for SA team of the year
The nominees for Team of the Year are: Springbok Sevens, SA bowls and SA U19 cricket.
The Springbok Sevens have done really well under new coach, Neil Powell, but they failed to win the World Series. However, they did capture gold at the Commonwealth Games. The SA Bowls team also excelled at the multi-sport event, adding more than their fair share of gold medals to South Africa’s tally.
The SA U19 cricket team must be the favourites for the coveted prize, though, as they became the first cricket team from the country to win an ICC World Cup.
Photo: Backpagepix
