Hilton Moreeng pleased with returns of young players in WSLT20

“We can see there’s a lot of youngsters coming through the system, so I was very happy and now we’re looking forward to the next one,” said Moreeng.

Young Nobulumko Baneti was the leading wicket-taker with seven wickets in the first round of the competition, that will see the next round played in March, while Madison Landsman, another uncapped youngster, was fourth in the charts with four wickets and an economy rate of 3.50.

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“We’re extremely happy. There are some really exciting youngsters that we’ve seen. Some for the senior national team, others with the potential to play for the U19s with the World Cup also on the horizon.”

“Overall it was nice to see some new faces come through other than the usual ones. We’re happy to see them step up with their performances and it’s just to now guide them and point them in the direction that will help them improve.”

Moreeng was also pleased with the quality of the competition, which saw Thistles and Coronations finish with two wins in three matches each, especially after most of the players were out of action ever since the pandemic put cricket to a halt.

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“Considering the year we’ve had, I’m very happy with what I saw in Cape Town,” he said. “You could see from the first game building up till the final day, the rustiness and nervousness of the players after not playing any cricket since March.”

“But we’ll take what we have here and now hopefully build on that going into the Pakistan tour. The overall skills we’ve seen considering the limited time that was there, we’re very happy with where we’re at and with the encouraging signs that were displayed.”

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South Africa are slated to play Pakistan at home for three ODIs and three T20Is late next month, the squad for which will be announced over the coming days. He said that they will get together on January 7 to prepare for the series, which will be played in a bio-secure environment.

“Between now and then, we want the girls to rest and have good family time. But overall this was a good indication of skills and the talent we have available,” concluded Moreeng.