New-look Proteas team ‘weren’t up to the mark’, admits coach Rob Walter

Though he seemed understandably dejected by the result, admitting they were outplayed, Proteas limited overs coach Rob Walter tried to focus on the positives his team could take from their T20 International series defeat to West Indies.

After winning the preceding two-match Test series 1-0 with a stronger squad, a second-string Proteas team were thumped 3-0 in the three-match T20 series.

In the final T20 match of their tour on Tuesday night, South Africa were crushed by eight wickets in Trinidad and Tobago as the hosts secured a series clean sweep.

“It was a tough series for us. I think West Indies played really well,” Walter said.

“All in all we were put under pressure over the three games and we weren’t up to the mark.”

Walter was pleased, however, with individual performances of some players, including batter Tristan Stubbs who was the leading run scorer in the series with 144 runs in three innings, as well as all-rounder Patrick Kruger who made 50 runs and took two wickets.

“We also saw a few starts (with the bat) here and there, and we had little bits from each bowler, but we weren’t able to string enough consistent performances together,” he said.

Opportunities for players

Walter was most pleased, however, that they were able to give multiple players opportunities.

Middle-order batter Jason Smith and 18-year-old seam bowler Kwena Maphaka both made their debuts, while a handful of other T20 International rookies including Kruger, Ryan Rickelton, Donovan Ferreira and Nandre Burger were all given game time.

“We tried to give some new faces an opportunity against high quality opposition, which has been great,” Walter said.

“This has been great experience for Kwena Maphaka – invaluable really – as it will be for the other new faces in our team, so irrespective of the results it was a huge win that we were able to give those guys some exposure and give them a good read in their own personal games as to where they need to look to improve and where they excelled.

“So from that point of view I’m very chuffed that the tour was able to deliver that for us.”