Proteas batters get in the necessary reps ahead of WTC final

South Africa’s batters were finally able to get to the crease during the warm-up match with Zimbabwe on Wednesday, where time in the middle was of greater importance than the amount of runs they scored.

After the first day’s play was washed out on Tuesday, Shukri Conrad adopted a philosophical stance, claiming dealing with rain in England is also a crucial part of preparation. The players enjoyed two days of training in Arundel earlier in the week, and the match with Zimbabwe was more about building some rhythm for the longer format ahead of next week’s World Test Championship final. 

On a mostly sunny day in the south of England, three SA South African batters made fifties; Ryan Rickelton (62), Temba Bavuma (58) and Tristan Stubbs (58) — all retired not out, to give their teammates some time in the middle too.

“It was a nice opportunity for all the batters to get out there. I’m sure some of them would have liked to stay out there a little bit longer, but we are keeping an eye on the weather and we wanted most of the guys to get a chance [to bat],” said Proteas batting coach Ashwell Prince. 

Rickelton, who’s been prolific across all three formats since November, faced 93 deliveries, Bavuma 85 and Stubbs 120 during their respective stints at the crease. 

“This is preparation, we asked Zimbabwe for all 15 [of the South African squad] to participate in the game and with whatever time we have available, because there is some weather around, all the players get as much time out of it as possible,” said Prince. 

The Proteas bowlers will hope to add to the 11 overs they managed to bowl at Zimbabwe late on Wednesday, should the weather allow in the remaining two days in Arundel.

Australia is not following a similar build-up. Unlike South Africa , the Australians allowed fast bowler Josh Hazlewood to finish the IPL with his side the Royals Challengers Bangalore.

He bowled the final over that sealed their victory in Ahmadabad on Tuesday and travelled to England the next day to join the remainder of the Australian squad, who have begun preparation with another training camp before Lord’s. 

Though Australia will start as favourites at Lord’s on June 11, their captain Pat Cummins was wary of undermining the Proteas, telling the Grade Cricketer podcast in Australia that they had some match winners in their side, along with some unknowns for his side to consider. 

“They have really good fast bowlers, they always seem to have not just one or two main guys, but they have got four-six guys they can call,” said Cummins.

“And yeah, some batters, [we] haven't seen much [of] but they've scored plenty of domestic runs. [We have] played most of the guys in the squad, certainly not everyone. There's always a little bit of mystique around South Africa, because we don't play them as often as say India.”

*In St Lucia the SA A side finished off an innings and 88-run victory against West Indies A on Wednesday. Spinner Prenelan Subrayen took 5/82 and rookie fast bowler Tristan Luus 4/86 to bowl the home side out for 272 in their second innings. The SA A team’s skipper Marques Ackerman was named player of the match for his 209 off 170 balls.