*Official* South Africa A v New Zealand A 2025

[SeamUp]

Good bounce back from Zubayr Hamza after a first ball duck in the first innings.

 

[SeamUp]

Shaping up for back-to-back home losses for South Africa A. They lost both games against Sri Lanka this time last year. Only two of the players who featured in that series, Ackerman and Moonsamy, are playing here, and if you include the away West Indies A tour, they've probably rotated through three teams' worth of players in 12 months. I remember when the A teams used to be for the players who were next in line.

I hear you. We just have so many cricketers on the move now. It's frustrating.

 

[Skyliner]

The stocks of Mariu, Dillips, Fisher, and Ashok have risen with this win. Will be interesting to see if Jacobs and Abbas are given in a run in the next match.

 

[Neil Young]

Abbas should clearly come in for Clarkson or Keene. Maybe Jacobs for Heaphy.

Fisher didn't bowl today, I don't think. Or, if he did, it wasn't much. Hopefully managing workload.

 

[straw man]

Yes, Foulkes has been disappointing so far.

I haven't seen him swing it at all yet in the whole tour (white or red ball).

It has been the LHBs even (normally his natural prey), like the Herman brothers and Ackerman who have been smashing him.

It's been a bit weird, actually. Not weird that he might not go well at a higher level. But weird the lack of swing. Like if he went up a level and the RHBs found him easy at that level, I'd understand that as quite a normal thing.

But he'll need to analyse what has been going wrong to LHBs, that hasn't been good enough. In one of the ListAs a Hermann had thrown him so far of his modus operandi that by his 4th over he had changed his approach and was bowling over the wicket bouncers.

Although, I did watch a bit of the stream yesterday when SafA were 8 or 9 down. And 3 times Engelbrecht gloved or bat-handled his bouncer, ballooning it in a line with a leg gully, but one went 5 m, one 20m, one about 40m. All found the turf.

It's been an odd tour for Foulkes, agree that if nothing else (as not everyone is going to fall for the hooping inswinger) he has to threaten the LHBs, but hasn't done that a lot here. Also interesting to see Hay stands up to the stumps for him when the ball is older and he perhaps drops pace a little, which I think will always be an issue for Foulkes. Though Hay doesn't always stand up either i.e. the wicket at the 54 over mark from a quicker short ball.

So the bowling has been mixed, but then he batted very well in the List A matches. It's really hard to guess which way Foulkes' career develops. but it should be fun to watch.

 

[Mike5181]

He only turned 23 like 3 months ago. Not impossible to get a bit quicker. I also think he can develop his batting a bit, he averages nearly 26 in List A, 19 in First Class.

 

[straw man]

Dunno if anyone watched through the second innings wickets, but despite taking a little tap from Hamza, Ashok collected another couple of beautiful bowleds. One more wrong-un through the gate of a right hand bat and a regulation legspinner to do the same to the left handed Hermann. And from the patch I watched, Ashok's control while still giving a real rip was pretty good. I'm always a little sceptical that NZ could develop a decent legspinner, unfortunately, but honestly this was a very impressive performance.

A minor thing maybe, but Ashok's diving catch off Clarkson suggests his fielding might be a little better than our last legspinner too.

 

[Kippax]

So has Mariu now done enough to warrant starting against the West Indies in December if you were selecting, Straw Man? If he has, and NZ has everyone available to begin that series, would Conway or Young start batting at No. 5 in your XI. Another option being Mitchell at 5, Blundell at 6, G Phillips at 7 (West Indies attacks often testing out the oppo's pull shots in NZ).

 

[Mike5181]

I think you can only fit one of Conway/Young/Mariu in there.

1. Devon Conway/Will Young/Rhys Mariu
2. Tom Latham
3. Kane Williamson
4. Rachin Ravindra
5. Daryl Mitchell
6. Glenn Phillips
7. Tom Blundell+
8. Mitch Santner
9. Kyle Jamieson
10. Matt Henry
11. Matthew Fisher/Ben Sears

 

[Kippax]

The most recent news on KW's relationship with NZC:

‘Very committed’: Williamson not done with Black Caps despite Zimbabwe snub

The former captain will instead play franchise cricket in England.

www.nzherald.co.nz

But now preparing to take charge of New Zealand for the first time, Walter is confident Kiwi fans have not seen the last of Williamson.

“Myself and Kane have had a nice conversation, a long conversation,” Walter told the Herald.

“It was really great to catch up with him and discuss cricket. It was great to get his lens on New Zealand cricket and the Black Caps. He’s been so influential in their success over the years.

“But then also to discuss what the future might look like. I’ve said it repeatedly, he’s still very committed to the Black Caps, and wants to play international cricket.

“I don’t think it’ll be too long until we see that.”

While he may not consider it himself, Williamson also has a huge incentive to continue playing for the Black Caps in the longest format.

Following his last test innings, 156 against England in Hamilton in December, Williamson’s record reads 9276 runs. Should he score 724 more, he’d become the first New Zealander to cross the fabled mark of 10,000.

And, given the trajectory of the modern game, it’s more than likely no other Kiwi will get anywhere near whatever mark Williamson sets.

 

[straw man]

So has Mariu now done enough to warrant starting against the West Indies in December if you were selecting, Straw Man? If he has, and NZ has everyone available to begin that series, would Conway or Young start batting at No. 5 in your XI. Another option being Mitchell at 5, Blundell at 6, G Phillips at 7 (West Indies attacks often testing out the oppo's pull shots in NZ).

As much as Mariu was good, I wouldn't push Conway out of the opener spot (still scarred by too many years of terrible NZ openers), while Latham is captain and had reasonable form last summer. There's still a bottleneck at the top of the order, with KW and Young around. Obviously if anyone's injured or unavailable, Mariu makes the squad ahead of Nicholls. So I am still going Conway, Latham, KW, Rachin, Mitchell for the top 5. Gave a moment's consideration to picking Young over Mitchell, but nah, back to being an unlucky squad member.

For the first test of the summer the only top 7 change I'd strongly consider is Hay over Blundell, with Hay batting 7 and Phillips 6. Maybe Hay can score a hundred next match to push that claim further.

 

[straw man]

I think you can only fit 2 of Conway/Young/Mariu in there.

1. Devon Conway/Will Young/Rhys Mariu
2. Tom Latham
3. Devon Conway/Will Young/Rhys Mariu
4. Rachin Ravindra
5. Daryl Mitchell
6. Glenn Phillips
7. Tom Blundell+
8. Mitch Santner
9. Kyle Jamieson
10. Matt Henry
11. Matthew Fisher/Ben Sears

Kyle Jamieson fit for the next two years is high on my Xmas list.

 

[Mike5181]

I completely forgot Williamson, yikes lol. The team pretty much picks itself.

 

[Fuller Pilch]

I think you can only fit 2 of Conway/Young/Mariu in there.

1. Devon Conway/Will Young/Rhys Mariu
2. Tom Latham
3. Devon Conway/Will Young/Rhys Mariu
4. Rachin Ravindra
5. Daryl Mitchell
6. Glenn Phillips
7. Tom Blundell+
8. Mitch Santner
9. Kyle Jamieson
10. Matt Henry
11. Matthew Fisher/Ben Sears

Is Williamson not available?
Is Santner likely to play before Xmas in NZ? We also have decent part-timers with Phillips and Ravindra, so could be Smith or Foulkes at 8.
Surely Hay instead of Blundell?

 

[Mike5181]

I would play Mitch Hay ahead of Blundell but I doubt they'd go that way.

 

[ataraxia]

Frankly the Hay/Blundell thing shouldn't even be a debate. Hay is 10 years younger, better with the gloves (against pace, at least), and has averaged about 15 more than Blundell in the last two years.

 

[Kippax]

Nah it's a shame how rarely an 'A' tour with genuinely quick and bouncy bowling comes along. Even this one, there was a bit of Gerald Coetzee offering that in the ODIs, but not enough for my liking.

Because of that, I still suspect at least some element of 'Papps before he'd ever faced Brett Lee' in the eye-catching Shield averages of Mariu and Hay.

 

[Fuller Pilch]

I would play Mitch Hay ahead of Blundell but I doubt they'd go that way.

I don't think (hope) they have one ounce of commonsense

 

[Mike5181]

Frankly the Hay/Blundell thing shouldn't even be a debate. Hay is 10 years younger, better with the gloves (against pace, at least), and has averaged about 15 more than Blundell in the last two years.

All of Blundell, Latham, Conway, and to an extent Mitchell should be under pressure really.

 

[Fuller Pilch]

Nah it's a shame how rarely an 'A' tour with genuinely quick and bouncy bowling comes along. Even this one, there was a bit of Gerald Coetzee offering that in the ODIs, but not enough for my liking.

Because of that, I still suspect at least some element of 'Papps before he'd ever faced Brett Lee' in the eye-catching Shield averages of Mariu and Hay.

Tbf they face most of NZ's best fast bowlers in the Cantab nets