A Sneak Peek into South Africa's New Look Test Side

The New Zealand XI and South Africa recently completed a warm-up fixture at Lincoln’s Bert Sutcliffe Oval.

The fixture was a three-day match, it resulted in a draw and multiple players retired not out during the batting innings.

On the first day of the match, multiple South Africans showed that whilst they might not be the first-choice players, they will put up a quality fight throughout the tour. Raynard van Tonder (54* from 47), Ruan de Swardt (53* from 78), Neil Brand (46* from 85), and Khaya Zondo (42* from 51) all scored over 40 runs for the visitors in the first innings. 

The New Zealand XI was a side that was stacked with seven Otago lads, four Cantabrians, and then one player from Northern and Wellington. They only managed to grab five wickets with Dean Foxcroft grabbing two whilst Luke Georgeson and Jacob Duffy got one each. There was also a runout for Ben Lockrose. 

Ed Moore and Brand opened up for South Africa with a 48-run stand before Georgeson grabbed the wicket of Moore for 20. The South African batters from positions three to five all recorded not-out scores, until a mixup between David Bedingham and Keegan Petersen saw the NZers grab their second wicket. Lockrose getting the run out of Bedingham for four. 

Near the end of the day, and ultimately the end of the innings, Duffy and Foxcroft grabbed one and two wickets respectively with Dane Piedt falling to Duffy for nine whilst Foxcroft had Mihlali Mpongwana for 16 and Clyde Fortuin for one. 

They did declare their innings closed with 339 runs on the board and five wickets down.

Jacob Cumming, Bharat Popli, and Leo Carter were the only Kiwi lads to score over 35 runs across the innings. 

A big second wicket stand between two of the more experienced players Popli (89) and Carter (100*) did give the South African bowlers some worries with eight players getting a chance to bowl.

Cumming made 36 runs at the top of the order with eight boundaries in the knock.

Dane Paterson (4/34) and Brand (2/32) were the best bowlers for South Africa whilst Duanne Olivier, Piedt, de Swardt, and Mpongwana all took a wicket each.

They took the ten New Zealand XI wickets for 294 runs. 

South Africa wanted to get just a bit more batting practice on the final day. Duffy did strike early as he bowled Moore for a golden duck.

Brand (11*), van Tonder (23*), and Fortuin (30*) all retired during the day whilst Lockrose got the wicket of Zondo for 12.

Moore (12*) and Olivier (0*) were the two remaining batters in the middle when Popli and Brand shook hands at the end of the 31 overs with South Africa scoring 91 runs.

Kyle Jamieson also got the chance to a bowl on the final day and bowled eight overs with four maidens in his overs whilst conceding twelve runs.