Stubbs and Coetzee make strong case for World Cup spots on SA A tour

Gerald Coetzee and Tristan Stubbs emerged with their reputations enhanced from the SA A team’s 2-1 one-day series win against Sri Lanka A, which was played in Pallekele this week.

The duo produced match-winning performances in Thursday’s deciding encounter, with Coetzee taking 5/48 to help restrict the Sri Lankans to 172, after which Stubbs cleverly controlled the visiting team’s run chase with an unbeaten 58 that saw them to victory by five wickets. 

Coetzee’s performances in the last two matches may thrust his name into the hat for the World Cup later this year. He impressed with bat and ball, making 77 in the second match after SA A had slumped to 42/7, helping them to a total of 175, which ultimately proved insufficient.

However, given the need for runs from the lower order, it is an element of Coetzee’s game that the Proteas’ one-day coach, Rob Walter, who accompanied the team to Sri Lanka for the limited-overs portion of the tour, will want to see more. 

His bowling remains his forte and after going wicketless in the second match, he picked up three in his first three overs to put the Sri Lankans immediately on the back foot on Thursday. 

Stubbs, meanwhile, played two innings that stood in contrast with the reputation he has quickly built for himself in his short professional career. He scored two half-centuries, each coming in pressure situations and, while known for his ability to locate the boundary regularly, his performances in Sri Lanka required greater patience and resilience. 

Stubbs completed the series with an aggregate of 117 runs, but it was the strike rate (runs scored per 100 balls) of 64.64 that was eye-catching.

In the T20 format, where Stubbs made his name for the EP Warriors and then earned a R9m SA20 contract, his strike rate is 148.10 (internationally it’s over 160). To display the level of adaptability and maturity he showed in Sri Lanka, at what is still the start of his career, will be pleasing to both him and the coaching staff. 

In both innings, SA A were in trouble. He shared a partnership of 111 for the eighth wicket with Coetzee in the second match, where he made 59 off 88 balls. In the final game, they were 27/2 when he first came to the crease and later 79/4.

Shukri Conrad, who is in overall charge of the SA A team, had marked the tour as an opportunity to build depth, while the one-day series also gave the players a chance to give Walter some food for thought around the World Cup. 

Dewald Brevis’s unbeaten 98 to help in a successful chase of 268 in the first match — especially the position in the batting order from where it was scored, No 7 — opens some new options for him when it comes to his international future and helping him to be flexible. 

One aspect Conrad did mention before the tour was getting Brevis and Stubbs more opportunity with the ball, but that didn’t really materialise for the latter, who only bowled two overs on Thursday — though he did snare a wicket. Brevis bowled 15 overs in the two matches he played, also netting just one wicket.

The tour continues with two four-day matches, the first of which will be played in Dambulla starting on Monday. 

The 17-year-old left-arm fast bowler Kwena Maphaka has been called into the squad as cover for Lutho Sipamla, who was suffering with back spasms on Thursday.