The South African emerging players cricket squad that participated in the 2007 Emerging Players Tournament in Brisbane, Australia, over the past two weeks landed back home with the trophy in hand after beating strong teams from Australia, New Zealand and India.
On Saturday South Africa beat New Zealand in the final of the tournament by 82 runs.
Johan Botha’s team put on 254-9 in their 50 overs with two half centuries from middle order batsman JP Duminy and all-rounder Vernon Philander.
Batting at four, Duminy struck a 57-ball half-century, which included two fours and two sixes. Philander’s 59 runs came off 50-balls. He then weighed in 3/20 off 8 overs.
New Zealand were never in the hunt as they were bowled out for 172 with 7.1 overs still to be completed. It was their second defeat in the tournament at the hands of South Africa.
Johan Botha said: ”I think it was a good all-round effort from everyone. The guys were on the ball from the time we arrived despite.
”Vernon had an awesome tournament with both bat and ball and our seamers did a good job of dominating the opposition batsmen and helping Thandi Tshabalala and myself to play the role of attacking off-spinners.
”The tournament was a good experience for all and I hope we can take this form into the season ahead and take the lessons learnt into our future careers.
”The coaching and support staff are to be commended for the hard work they put in and making it possible for us to defend the title.”
Kepler Wessels, the emerging players coach, had said that one of the three objectives was to win as many games as possible on tour.
The team started their campaign off with three Twenty20 matches, winning two and losing one before playing seven one-day internationals in a round-robin format.
In the build up to the final, the South Africa first played against India, winning by nine wickets.
New Zealand then beat South Africa by 30 runs in a low-scoring match in which Friedel De Wet took 5/23 off his 10 overs and Vernon Philander top scored with 48 runs.
South Africa then trounced India by 147 runs, with Gulam Bodi scoring a run-a-ball 124. Alviro Petersen also weighed in with a 103-ball 90, and JP Duminy struck 74 off 51-balls, their endeavours enabling South Africa to reach 319-6 in their allotted 50 overs.
All the bowlers contributed in curbing India’s run chase, restricting them to 172 in their allotted 50 overs.
South Africa then inflicted New Zealand’s first defeat, with all the batsmen contributing as they amassed 323/6.
New Zealand were then well and truly beaten, bowled out for 81 after a mere 22.4 overs, with Vernon Philander picking up 5/18 off seven overs.
Australia were the next victims in a match of no consequence as the finalists had already been decided.
South Africa have now won the Emerging Players Tournament for the second time after winning the tournament on debut last year by beating Australia by two wickets in the final. — Sapa