Shamsi hails SA ‘A’ bowling unit

Cricket365
July 31, 2017

South Africa A spinner Tabraiz Shamsi credits his four wickets in the 164-run One-Day Triangular Series victory over Afghanistan A on Sunday to pressure created by the other bowlers rather than his own doing.

The left-arm wrist spinner claimed 4/19 as the hosts bundled out their visitors for just 172 in 32.2 overs at the Tuks Oval in Pretoria.

South Africa opener Reeza Hendricks himself made 173, which he blasted off 145 balls as the home side piled on 336/5, before going on to secure a second successive bonus-point win.

“It’s always nice to contribute to the team’s success,” Shamsi said. “But it’s not really about me. Everyone’s been putting in the hard work and as you saw in the first game it was Aaron Phangiso and Dwaine Pretorius who took a lot of the wickets. On the day, not everyone is going to do that, it will be one or two guys, but that is the effort of everyone else.”

South Africa beat India A by two wickets in the first game and Shamsi praised his team-mates for the way they have progressed in the opening two games.

“Obviously the series has gone quite well for us so far, both games we’ve won with bonus points, which is a good thing,” he continued. “We had a disappointing tour to England, so the boys are working really hard to make up for that. There was a camp before the series and just in general everyone is putting in a lot of hard work. I’m glad that the results are showing.”

South Africa’s next match against India will be on Thursday and Shamsi said they were only looking at that game for now, rather than eyeing the August 8 final.

“We need to obviously first qualify for the final and then hopefully win it,” he added. “Even though we played two and won both, as a team we’re not going to be taking it easy. We want to win the remaining two games and then hopefully the third one in the final.”