Walter hopes ‘learnings’ will soon turn into performance for Proteas

While Proteas white ball coach Rob Walter said patience was needed with some of the younger players in the current squad he also admitted the time had come for the team to turn their “learnings” into performances.

The Proteas’ T20 squad crashed to a 10-run defeat to Ireland in Dubai on Sunday night after being in a good position to win the game. The result left the two-match series tied at 1-1 after the Proteas’ win on Friday.

The ODI team also suffered a 2-1 series defeat to Afghanistan before the Ireland T20s.

Opportunities

“In T20 cricket things can turn around quickly,” said Walter about Sunday’s loss.

After letting Ireland post 195/6 the South Africans were well placed in their chase after good knocks by Ryan Rickelton, Reeza Hendriks and Matthew Breetzke, but lost several wickets late on in their chase to be restricted to 185/9.

“We should have got over the line. The effort was there. With the bat we were in a great position to win, we could have been more clinical, but they executed their plans well and made it tough for us to get it done,” said Walter.

Looking at the bigger picture, the Proteas’ limited overs team coach said it was important to give some of the fringe players an opportunity.

‘Hurts to lose’

“We need to see where guys stand, also for them to get an insight into what they need to work on,” said Walter.

“We didn’t achieve the results we were hoping to, but we came up against some stiff opposition, too. Some of our young cricketers played good cricket, learnt a lot, and hopefully the learnings will now turn into performance.

“It hurts to lose. We’re a proud team and we know we play for a proud nation.

“You want to win every game, and we’re trying to do that. We should have won the series against Ireland, but we didn’t. We’re trying to piece the puzzle pieces together and improve our performances as a unit.

“We have to keep looking for positives. It’s important everyone understands the journey we’re on as a team. We must be patient, but we must also be harder in some instances and expect more.

“We’ll continue to endevour to be better.”

The Proteas now take on Ireland in a three-match ODI series, also in Dubai, starting Wednesday. The other matches are on Friday and Monday next week.