CSA Facebook Post 30/06/2015
The Coca-Cola South Africa under-19s got their preparation for their seven-match Youth One-Day International series against Bangladesh off to a flying start when they beat the KwaZulu-Natal Academy by eight wickets in their first warm-up match at Chatsworth Oval in Durban on Tuesday.
A mature batting innings by Liam Smith and his captain, Tony De Zorzi, saw the young Proteas reach their 182-run target with more than 10 overs to spare. The pair put on an unbeaten, 145-run partnership for the third wicket with Smith hitting an outstanding 107* off 126 balls to lead his side to victory with De Zorzi playing his faithful partner, adding an unbeaten 58 runs to keep the SA innings on track after losing Rivaldo Moonsamy (7) and Dean Foxcroft (2) early in the innings.
Smith was delighted by his performance and credits their bowling attack for setting up the match.
“I’m very happy with the team performance overall,” he said. “I think our bowlers did a good job to restrict them (the Academy) to a manageable score and allowed myself and Tony (De Zorzi) to come in and play our part. It was tough going in the beginning, but I think we gave ourselves a chance and stayed in and if you just stay, it gets a lot easier as you go.”
KZN were restricted to 181 thanks to a well-oiled SA U19 attack led by Lutho Sipamla (3/22) and Foxcroft (3/34), who took three wickets each.
De Zorzi was impressed with his side’s performance but admits some work is still needed to be done before they take on Bangladesh on Sunday. He said; “I’m really proud of the way the guys played today. We set targets and goals and reached most of them. Every game is a work in progress and I believe we are on the right track for when we play Bangladesh. Warm-up matches are important to us because the tour starts now, they allow us to see what combinations work and what doesn’t and they are a really good test to see how much further we need to go before we play our real opponents.”
The team will play their second and last warm-up match on Thursday, 2 July at UKZN, Howard College campus.
The Coca-Cola South Africa under-19s got their preparation for their seven-match Youth One-Day International series against Bangladesh off to a flying start when they beat the KwaZulu-Natal Academy by eight wickets in their first warm-up match at Chatsworth Oval in Durban on Tuesday.
A mature batting innings by Liam Smith and his captain, Tony De Zorzi, saw the young Proteas reach their 182-run target with more than 10 overs to spare. The pair put on an unbeaten, 145-run partnership for the third wicket with Smith hitting an outstanding 107* off 126 balls to lead his side to victory with De Zorzi playing his faithful partner, adding an unbeaten 58 runs to keep the SA innings on track after losing Rivaldo Moonsamy (7) and Dean Foxcroft (2) early in the innings.
Smith was delighted by his performance and credits their bowling attack for setting up the match.
“I’m very happy with the team performance overall,” he said. “I think our bowlers did a good job to restrict them (the Academy) to a manageable score and allowed myself and Tony (De Zorzi) to come in and play our part. It was tough going in the beginning, but I think we gave ourselves a chance and stayed in and if you just stay, it gets a lot easier as you go.”
KZN were restricted to 181 thanks to a well-oiled SA U19 attack led by Lutho Sipamla (3/22) and Foxcroft (3/34), who took three wickets each.
De Zorzi was impressed with his side’s performance but admits some work is still needed to be done before they take on Bangladesh on Sunday. He said; “I’m really proud of the way the guys played today. We set targets and goals and reached most of them. Every game is a work in progress and I believe we are on the right track for when we play Bangladesh. Warm-up matches are important to us because the tour starts now, they allow us to see what combinations work and what doesn’t and they are a really good test to see how much further we need to go before we play our real opponents.”
The team will play their second and last warm-up match on Thursday, 2 July at UKZN, Howard College campus.
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