Rain intervenes in Proteas warm-up
The Proteas’ 50-over warm-up match against West Indies ‘A’ finished in a tie (D/L Method) after rain forced an early end to the match at the Queen’s Park Oval in the Port of Spain on Sunday. The teams were level on the Duckworth-Lewis method when heavy showers washed out the hosts’ chase on 127/3 in the 25th over.
It was a frustrating end after a productive start from the seamers, who bowled with good pace and rhythm in response to the batting effort of 280/9 in 50 overs. All of the seamers managed to put in valuable mileage on their feet, with Kyle Abbott (1/11), Kagiso Rabada (1/13) and Imran Tahir (1/15) picking up wickets before the rain set in.
Earlier, Hashim Amla anchored the Proteas’ innings with 92 off 83 balls, after stand-in captain, JP Duminy, won the toss and elected to bat. Amla’s innings was an excellent mix of classy stroke-play (10 fours, 1 six) and patient rotation of the strike, with the 33 year-old making a swift adjustment to the change in format following his Indian Premier League stint earlier this month.
The lower order and tailenders smashed 82 runs off the last 13 overs to race to a competitive total given the slow conditions, with impressive contributions from Chris Morris (31 off 24 balls), Kyle Abbott (43 off 38 balls) and Aaron Phangiso (34 off 34 balls). West Indies leg-spinner, Damion Jacobs, finished with figures of 4/53 and perhaps gave an early indication of the key role spin will play in the upcoming series.
“It was a great outing for us,” Amla said after the match. “When you come to a foreign country the most important thing is having time on the legs, especially some of the guys who haven’t played in a while. We put up a good total on the board, fortunately I managed to get some runs, and a few of the lower order batsmen as well which is quite handy.
“The seamers bowled exceptionally well,” he added. “It started raining so they had to deal with a really wet ball which was a challenge and even then I think they bowled with good pace and direction. It was important for them to get overs under their belt so it was a good outing for them as well.”