JP Duminy at a training session at the Adelaide Oval. Photo: Wikipedia
Coach Russell Domingo put his stamp on the Proteas Castle Lager ODI squad when he gave JP Duminy the all-important No. 3 position and played both his specialist spinners in the Sri Lankan tour opener against the Cricket Board’s President XI at the Colts Cricket Club, Colombo, on Wednesday.
The Proteas scored an easy victory by 73 runs in their only warm-up outing ahead of the five-match ODI series starting on Saturday (11am CAT).
Domingo had every reason to be pleased with his selections. Duminy took the responsibility of batting for the bulk of the innings after Hashim Amla had been run out for 31 (33 balls, 5 fours), finishing with top score of 92 (100 balls, 7 fours and 2 sixes).
Although the pitch was a slow seamer which gave little help to the spinners, the Proteas trio of Duminy, Aaron Phangiso and Robbie Peterson took seven wickets between them – the impressive Chris Morris took the other three for 27 runs in eight overs as the home side was dismissed for 198 with more than five overs to spare.
Probably the most important decision Domingo took was to opt for a proper 11-a-side List A match instead of giving practice opportunities to his entire squad. This made for a competitive environment.
A warm-up match is not the same thing as a full blown ODI but the Proteas can nevertheless feel largely satisfied with the performance against what was very close to a Sri Lankan 2nd XI in strength.
More than half of the players have represented Sri Lanka at international level across the formats.
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