South Africa zero in on squad for World Cup

COLOMBO: South Africa lost the two-match Test series and the one-off Twenty20 International in a tough six-week tour of Sri Lanka, but head coach Ottis Gibson said they were closer to finding the right combination for next year’s World Cup.

South Africa came away from the five-match One-day International series with a 3-2 victory, and Gibson said that was particularly impressive given they had fielded an inexperienced bowling attack.

“We’ve got a pretty inexperienced bowling line-up here,” said Gibson.“It’s not so much on purpose, it’s also about who’s available. (Chris) Morris isn’t here, because he’s injured, and we felt that going back home and playing domestic cricket may help Dale (Steyn) more right now.

“(Imran) Tahir is our No. 1 bowler, but on this tour, we wanted to take a look at (Keshav) Maharaj and (Tabriaz) Shamsi. This way, we can make a decision on whether to take two spinners to the World Cup,” he said.

After succumbing to Sri Lanka’s spinners in the two Tests, South Africa did well to fight back in the ODI series, winning three consecutive matches to take an unassailable 3-0 lead. Gibson said he was happy with the fight they showed, and the direction in which the team is headed.

“We’ve answered some questions on the tour, and there are others we haven’t found solutions to yet,” he said.“I’m happy with where the side is going. This exercise of giving young players the opportunity to see where they are has given us the chance to sit down and pick better teams.

“When we pick a team against Pakistan, when they tour South Africa next year, it will be very close to the team that we will be taking to the World Cup.”South African batsmen struggled in Sri Lanka against the turning ball. The visitors were folded for just 98 runs in the one-off T20I on Tuesday and though they made a fight of it in the second innings, they were eventually beaten by three wickets.

“There’s frustration, of course, especially when you look at the way we batted,” said Gibson. “But also look at the way we went out and tried to defend a small total. It just showed that there’s so much more we can do as a team.”

However, Gibson cautioned his batsmen from over-thinking their troubles, especially against Akila Dananjaya, the unorthodox off-spinner who picked 23 South African scalps across formats over the last few weeks.

“What I don’t want is people to go back into their shells and start thinking that they need to defend,” he said.“I still want guys to score. In the first three ODIs, when we looked to score, we did score, despite him (Dananjaya) getting two or three wickets.”