The South African A team ended a superb tour of England with a six-wicket loss to the England Lions in their final tour match at the County Ground, New Road, Worcester on Tuesday evening.
It was an unfortunate way to end their five-game tour, but the team can still be very proud of their efforts after they won the four-day series 2-0 and the one-day series 2-1.
In fact, they had dominated every other match, picking up thumping wins throughout, until they came unstuck after a poor batting performance in the final match.
Batting first
It was the first game in all five that SA A batted first, after captain Marques Ackerman won the toss and chose to, only for them to be let down by the majority of their order as they were skittled for just 146.
Opener Lhuan-dre Pretorius was the only star performer with the bat, backing up his century in the second one-day, with 65 off 57 balls (5×4; 4×6).
But only two other batters reached double figures, middle order batter Dian Forrester (22) and Ackerman (14).
They were destroyed by the Lions spinners, with Rehan Ahmed claiming 6/34 and James Coles 3/23, and after being in a strong position on 93/1 in the 18th over, SA A ended up losing their last nine wickets for just 53 runs as they crashed to a low total.
The Lions batting had been dismal in the previous four games, and despite their top three of Ben McKinney (16), James Rew (19), and Ahmed (15), all getting starts, they still lost regular wickets and looked in danger on 72/4 in the 17th over.
But Coles then struck a match winning 63 off 58 balls (7×4; 2×6), sharing in an unbeaten 76-run fifth wicket stand with Ben Mayes (17 not out), to get them over the line in the 29th over.
Gerald Coetzee (2/35) was the best of the SA A bowlers, while Ottneil Baartman (1/31) and Nqaba Peter (1/38) were the other wicket takers.
Successful tour
Despite a poor finish, the SA A team enjoyed a very successful tour of England, winning both four-day matches by eight wickets, while they won the first one-day by nine wickets and the second an emphatic 10-wicket win, while there were also some memorable performances by various players.
In the four-day series Jordan Hermann was the top performer with the bat, scoring 211 runs across four innings with an average of 105.5 and a highest score of 103, while the biggest individual score went to Ackerman who struck a superb 173 in the first match.
On the bowling front Tiaan van Vuuren starred in the only match he played, picking up a brilliant 11 wickets thanks to two five-wicket hauls over two innings, while Dane Paterson also impressed taking 10 wickets across the two games he played.
In the one-day games, Pretorius dominated with the bat with his 181 in two innings, thanks to an unbeaten 116 and his half-century in the last game, while Rubin Hermann scored 141 in two innings with a high score of 83 not out.
On the bowling front, SA A shared the load, as shown by seven players taking wickets, with six picking up three or more, as Coetzee finished top of the list with five scalps across two matches, while Nqobani Mokoena’s 4/40 in his only appearance was the best individual effort.
