Proteas feeding off confidence as they post fourth Test win on the trot

DURBAN – South Africa are feeding off the confidence built over the last few months of success but still need to improve aspects of their play in their next matches, said coach Shukri Conrad after Saturday’s first Test success over Sri Lanka.

The 233-run victory at Kingsmead came on the back of not only an 11-wicket haul for lanky speedster Marco Jansen but centuries for captain Temba Bavuma and the hard-hitting Tristan Stubbs that have added to the belief in the ranks.

“There's a lot to be said for confidence and feeding off each other. Obviously, there's a lot of talk amongst the players around the know-how and how to go about processes," Conrad said.

“There's a lot of sharing of knowledge, not from us as coaches necessarily but amongst the peers. I think a lot's got to be said for knowing that when conditions are really good, that we have the ability to get hundreds.”

South Africa have now won four Tests in a row and remain on course for a place in the World Test Championship final.

They must win at least two of their three remaining Tests in the 2024-25 cycle against Sri Lanka next week in Gqeberha and Pakistan shortly afterwards in Pretoria and Cape Town.

“We played really good cricket on what was a tough wicket to bat on first up,” Conrad said of their Durban triumph.

“But we still need to get better when it's really tough. And that doesn't necessarily mean getting loads of runs but I think we can minimise the loss of clusters of wickets and apply what we set out to do in terms of playing the conditions.

“We toiled really hard today, which was great. And because the last couple of wins have, and I say this with the utmost respect, probably been relatively easy, I think we needed a good, hard toil.”

South Africa were chasing the last five Sri Lanka wickets at the start of the fourth day’s play to wrap up victory but met strong resistance and took until after lunch to secure success.

“It was good to see how we just stuck at it. But we do know that Sri Lanka is a top side, and they're going to come back strongly in the second Test,” the coach added.

The second Test starts on Thursday at St George’s Park.

Reuters