Zondo seeks further improvements

Cricket365
August 3, 2017

The South Africa A team will be looking to make it three wins from three and book their place in the One-Day Triangular Series final when they take on India A in their latest match at the Tuks Oval in Pretoria on Thursday.

The hosts have won both of their matches with bonus points to top the table ahead of the Indians on net run rate, with winless Afghanistan A propping up the standings.

Captain Khaya Zondo is hoping they can maintain their 100 percent record, although he wants to see some improvements in the batting. They beat the Afghans convincingly, but only just snuck past India in the opening match, winning by two wickets.

“I thought we’ve had two clinical performances so far,” Zondo said. “It’s just a matter of doing that again. Everyone’s been superb so far.

“The only thing now when we play India is that we need to make sure we do well with the bat because the last time the bowlers won us the game.

“Now it’s just a matter of the batters doing well by posting big targets if we bat first in the game or win us the game if we are chasing.”

With 178 runs in two innings, Reeza Hendricks has been the stand-out batsmen for SA A, while the bowling responsibilities have been shared with five wickets each from Dwaine Pretorius and Aaron Phangiso as well as four for Tabraiz Shamsi.

Zondo is happy with what he has seen so far.

“The guys have been very good,” he added. “We had a good start against India with a bonus-point win and we followed that up nicely with another bonus-point win over Afghanistan.

“So the start has been good and we just need to keep the form going and keep the basics going with the bat and the ball. We also need to make sure we stay in our own bubble and remain focussed for the remaining games.”