Proteas ‘outplayed’, Walter admits, but there is light at the end of the tunnel

He didn’t shy away from acknowledging that they were well below par, but Proteas limited overs coach Rob Walter insisted the national team could take some real value out of their thumping T20 series defeat against Australia.

The South African side lost all three matches in Durban last week, but Walter was pleased to see improvement throughout the series.

READ MORE: Proteas crash to third straight defeat to Australia, lose series 3-0

“To put it bluntly, we were pretty much outplayed throughout the series in both departments,” he admitted.

“But there were some lights at the end of the tunnel along the way. I think we improved as we went along, and there were little bits of our blueprint that shone through today, specifically in the batting department.”

Switching focus

Having rested a handful of senior players for the T20 series, in order to give opportunities to a few uncapped players, Walter was relieved to be recalling their experienced stars for the five-match ODI series against the touring Australian side starting in Bloemfontein on Thursday.

The Proteas will use the series to prepare for the Cricket World Cup in India next month.

“We have more senior chaps coming back in, so it will be great to have their energy and experience stepping back into the fray,” Walter said.

“One thing we can say is it’s a lead up to a World Cup, so these are obviously five big games for us to come together as a group and keep building on the type of game we’ve already played this year.

“So I’m excited for the squad to come together for five keenly contested cricket matches. I think we’re going to have an awesome series.”