‘Pretty much perfect’: Duminy lauds Proteas batters

The performance by the Proteas batting line-up at the weekend was about as perfect as it’s going to get, according to assistant coach JP Duminy, as they look to carry them momentum into their next match of the Cricket World Cup in India.

South Africa earned a thumping 102-run victory over former champions Sri Lanka in their opening World Cup match, breaking multiple tournament batting records along the way.

Three players scored centuries – Quinton de Kock, Rassie van der Dussen and Aiden Markram – as they racked up a total of 428 runs, and Markram raced to his ton off just 49 balls.

Duminy said their spectacular all-round effort with the bat had injected energy into the team in the early stages of the showpiece, with eight matches remaining in the first round as they target a place in the semifinals.

“I think that was pretty much a perfect day. Breaking records and having opportunities to score three hundreds doesn’t come around every day,” said Duminy, the team’s batting coach.

“We’ll certainly take that as a massive confidence booster going into the rest of the tournament.”

Post-match reflections

Conditions will be different at the various venues throughout the six-week tournament, and the Proteas will need to adjust to their new environment after travelling from Delhi to Lucknow for their second game against Australia on Thursday.

Looking back on their opener, however, Duminy didn’t feel there was a lot they could take out of it in terms of improvement.

Lauding the players for the “grit” and “determination” they displayed, he said their post-match reflections after the win over Sri Lanka had been positive.

The result, he believed, had shown the in-form batting unit’s ability to not only see the options available to them but also capitalise on opportunities.

“I thought our mindsets and our intent was spot on. For the most part I think the options were really good,” Duminy said.

“And yes, we’ll have conversations here and there that we could do something different or add something to a particular partnership. But outside of that there’s not much to reflect on, other than affirming the things we did well.”

The match between South Africa and Australia starts at 10.30am on Thursday (SA time).