It’s common for sports teams to apply the lessons they’ve learned from one game to the next. But using the teachings from a match that was played more than eight years ago must be unprecedented. When South Africa plays its first Test match since 2014 the following week, they will need to do that.
They are remembering their match against India in Mysore, when they lost by an innings and 34 runs due to lower-order meltdowns of 6 for 25 in the first innings.
Lizelle Lee, Chloe Tryon, Marizanne Kapp, and Trisha Chetty are the four members of the current team, who participated in that Test. Chetty, one of those four, spent nearly three hours at the plate while scoring 56 in the first inning. He then spent two hours and 25 minutes in the middle while scoring 35 in the second.
Hilton Moreeng, who has been South Africa’s coach since 2012, said.
“In that Test match, we were well in the game competing and then we lost concentration as a unit after tea and that’s when we lost the Test match,”
“It showed what a lack of concentration can do and what losing a session does – how critical that can be. Those who were part of it understand what happened and it’s now an opportunity to show they can put it right against a team that has been playing consistently in this format.”
Tryon batted for an unblemished 30 in the second inning over the course of two hours and 27 minutes. They will be of great value to a lineup that is still getting used to the extended format. The hitters were having a harder time adjusting than the bowlers, but had made good improvement since their training camp last month, according to Moreeng, South Africa’s coach since 2012.
South Africa also played a 3-days warm-up match ahead of the Taunton Test
“The ones that are battling with it currently are our batters, because we’ve just come from a white-ball tour in Ireland,” he said. “What has helped is the prep we had prior to the Ireland tour. We had a three-day and four-day game where we introduced most of them to red-ball cricket.”
And in the three-day warm-up game versus England A, the results of that labour were evident.
Laura Wolvaardt hit her maiden red-ball century, Lara Goodall hit 51 while batting third, and Wolvaardt’s opening partner Andrie Steyn hit a second-innings 63. According to the indications from the warm-up game, Lee is anticipated to bat in the middle order, surrounded by skipper Sune Luus and Kapp, who would lead the pace attack.
However, Moreeng would not reveal much about the lineup he intended to play in the Test. Shabnim Ismail and Ayabonga Khaka are likely to start for South Africa, despite the fact that both were rested for the warm-up game.
The squad as a whole has been preparing for consecutive days of cricket, which they are also used to, while the batsmen and bowlers have been honing their skill-specific training.
“Our conditioning has been good. We knew the Test was coming so it was put in their conditioning plans. There’s nothing that beats time in the legs. The two games we had back home gave them an idea of what could happen and after four days we could see who was where,”
Moreeng said.
“Test cricket is more taxing on the body and the mind and everyone understands that. They’re more excited to see how it goes.”
