Lessons must be turned into winning matches, Walter says

Proteas white ball coach Rob Walter said ample lessons his players have taken from their recent matches should be turned into contest-winning performances.

While the wounds will still be fresh from suffering their first defeat to Ireland in a T20 international match, they will have little time to mull over that slip-up as they look ahead to the first of three ODIs against the same opponents starting on Wednesday. 

Walter said while they didn’t achieve the results they were hoping for from the series, there were some positives in that players were able to get valuable time in the middle.

“The thing about giving opportunities [is that] ultimately it is all done with the best intentions. You have to give them exposure to good opposition to see where they stand [and] to give them an insight as to what they need to work on,” Walter said.

“As a team, we did not in any way achieve the results we were hoping to. We came up against some stiff opposition along the way but still, the games we would expect to win we didn’t get done. 

“There are a bunch of young cricketers who have played [against] some good opposition, played good cricket and hopefully the learning now turns into performances,” Walter said in his postmatch analysis.

Fielding another relatively fresh-faced outfit, the Proteas looked on course to chase down the 195 set by Ireland. However, another catastrophic middle-order collapse saw them hand Ireland a 10-run victory.

It was their fifth defeat in their last six matches in the format, dating back to the ill-fated T20 World Cup final against India in June. 

It also continues an unwanted run of not winning a T20 series since they last beat the Irish 2-0 in England in 2022 and only the second drawn series since India’s visit in 2023/24 ended in a stalemate.

That run of seven losses and two draws includes series defeats to England and Australia, twice against India and three against the West Indies. 

“You want to win every game you play. We are certainly trying to win every game we play. We should have won a series tonight, but we didn’t. 

“It really is about putting the pieces of the puzzle together and improving our performances as a unit. The guys who have been given a bit of exposure to quality opposition have to perform the next time they get a chance so those collective performances turn into winning games,” he said. 

Meanwhile, Cricket SA confirmed on Monday the travel plans for the men’s side to play Bangladesh in a two-match Test series starting on October 21 after a positive security assessment.

The Proteas squad will depart for Bangladesh on October 15. 

The first Test match starts on October 21 before the team travel to Chattogram for the second match, starting October 29.

SA Test squad: Temba Bavuma (capt), David Bedingham, Matthew Breetzke, Nandré Burger, Tony de Zorzi, Keshav Maharaj, Aiden Markram, Wiaan Mulder, Senuran Muthusamy, Dane Paterson, Dane Piedt, Kagiso Rabada, Tristan Stubbs, Ryan Rickelton, Kyle Verreynne