Maharaj hails young talent after big SA win against Zimbabwe

South African captain Keshav Maharaj said his team’s 328-win in the first Test against Zimbabwe on Tuesday showed the amount of talent there was in the South African cricket system.

Fast bowler Corbin Bosch took five for 43 as South Africa wrapped up the win on the fourth afternoon at Queens Sports Club, bowling out Zimbabwe for 208 after setting them 537 to win.

Playing in his second Test, Bosch became the fourth South African to score a century and take five wickets in an innings in a Test.

Bosch was one of seven changes from the team that won the World Test Championship final against Australia at Lord’s in London last month.

“We’ve been a team that has just won something major and we had a lot of youngsters coming in,” said Maharaj at the post-match presentation.

“We know the talent there is in our system. It was just about getting them in the right frame of mind to execute and they showed that throughout the four days.”

Bosch was pipped for the player of the match award by Lhuan-dre Pretorius, who made 153 on debut and at 19 became South Africa’s youngest player to hit a Test century.

“He’s a mature young man and to see the way he goes about his business in pressure situations is really encouraging,” Maharaj said of the young left-hander.

Pretorius praised the team environment. “It’s a moment I will cherish,” he said. “The message in the change room was, be yourself and back yourself.”

Zimbabwe captain Craig Ervine admitted that the lack of a third seam bowler had hurt his team after fiery bowling from Blessing Muzarabani and Tanaka Chivanga had South Africa struggling at 55 for four on the first morning.

With no seam back-up, Zimbabwe lost control and South Africa set up their win by recovering to score 418 for nine declared.

“In hindsight another seamer would have done us a lot of favours on that surface, especially bowling first,” said Ervine. “Going down to the spin (bowlers), we just weren’t consistent enough.”

Ervine said the Queens club pitch had offered uncharacteristic help to the faster bowlers. “We didn’t expect as much pace and movement,” he said. Ervine said first innings century-maker Sean Williams was “exceptional, but it was disappointing there wasn’t someone else to support him.”

Zimbabwe’s fragile batting line-up suffered a blow when opening batsman Brian Bennett was ruled out of the match after suffering concussion with his score on 19 in the first innings.

“He’s still getting monitored but hopefully he will be fit for the second Test,” said Ervine.

The teams meet again at the same venue in the second Test starting on Sunday.

Agence France-Presse

Brief scores:

South Africa 418-9 declared and 369

Zimbabwe 251 and 208 (C. Ervine 49, W. Masakadza 57; C. Yusuf 3-22, C. Bosch 5-43)

Result: South Africa won by 328 runs

Series: South Africa lead the two-match series 1-0