Proteas bowling attack impresses in series win against Ireland

Any bowling attack that can take 29 wickets in a three-match One Day International series deserves its flowers, especially if it is as inexperienced as the Proteas bowling attack during the tour to the United Arab Emirates.

Spearheaded by Lungi Ngidi and Lizaad Williams, the Proteas bowling attack played an important hand in securing the series victory against Ireland.

On the batting front, the likes of Tristan Stubbs, Ryan Rickelton, and Jason Smith stood out and made their presence felt despite being inexperienced at that level. Stubbs put together a maiden century and a half-century against Ireland, while Ryan Rickelton (91 in the first match) and Jason Smith (91 in the third match) each recorded maiden half-centuries.

In light of these sparkling signs of growth among fringe players, limited-overs coach Rob Walter expressed his satisfaction following South Africa's 2-1 series victory in Dubai on Monday.

“I think the bowling unit bowled very well this whole series,” Walter stated.

“We saw some nice batting contributions throughout from guys who are still early in their international careers. Even though Tristan has been around for a while, in ODI cricket, he’s still very young. In the second game in particular, he played a very measured innings. There was a nice partnership between Rickelton and Stubbo in the first game. Again, two guys very early on in their ODI careers getting in tricky conditions when the team was under pressure, and they were able to bat their way out of it.

“Jason Smith tonight, again in his second game, coming in under pressure and being able to bat throughout, was a highlight. It’s the little bits of positive stuff to take home with us,” he added.

With Enoch Nkwe as director of cricket, Walter has been given freedom – a luxury many head coaches can only dream of. With this freedom, the 49-year-old has been able to select his own squads, including the one for the 2024 ICC Men’s T20 World Cup, which had only one Black African player. Most recently, Walter has had the flexibility to select fringe players, venturing beyond the immediate national team.

The result has been a Proteas team that has looked almost unrecognisable in the past months, with four players making their debuts and several with only a handful of international matches being called back into the team.

Walter and Cricket South Africa took the opportunity during the UAE tour – which was not originally in the Future Tour Programme – to rest key players, a move that the country will likely benefit from this summer.

In the absence of these main players, South Africa has faced challenges, including a loss in an ODI series against Afghanistan, a drawn T20I series against Ireland, and an incomplete whitewash against Ireland in the three-match ODI series.

Exposed in foreign conditions, the Proteas struggled to adapt, particularly in spin-friendly Sharjah and under the lights in Dubai.

Nonetheless, Walter remains hopeful for more opportunities to reward fringe players with significant international exposure to expand the depth of the squad.

He underscored the importance of focusing on player progress rather than solely on match results, despite the competitive nature of the game.

“Everyone likes to win; we’re all competitive, and it’s ultimately why we play the game. But from the coaching space, we try not to get too emotionally attached to the result,” he explained.

“It’s really about the progress you see in the players. Focusing on making sure that we acknowledge those things, what we got right, what the learnings are that we still need to do, and the areas that we need to improve.

“We keep chipping away at our peripheral players. Having these opportunities is exactly what we are after. We need more of them, and we want to keep giving certain groups of players opportunities to grow their experience and understand what the game looks like in different conditions.”

During the third ODI against Ireland in Dubai on Monday, the challenge of batting second tested the players significantly.

“Jason Smith would have learned a hell of a lot about his game, and others have learnt from him, but also from the experience. We want to keep doing that, keep growing the base, and hopefully we’ll start winning more and more games as they become more comfortable in international cricket,” Walter concluded.