Africa-Press – South-Africa. The Proteas may have lost the first T20 against England on Wednesday night by 41 runs, but they will be comforted by the prospect of a new South African cricket sensation being born.
Tristan Stubbs
, playing in just his third T20 international and batting for his country for the first time, was breathtaking in his innings of 72 off just 28 balls as the Proteas tried in vain to chase down the 235 they were set for victory.
It was quite remarkable that the Proteas were in the game for as long as they were, and almost all of that was down to Stubbs.
A player who has already been identified by the Mumbai Indians in the Indian Premier League, Stubbs showed an incredible range of powerful shot-making but also remarkable touch and timing as he raced along in an innings that includes 8 sixes and 2 fours.
Rassie van der Dussen and Aiden Markram were left out on Wednesday, while skipper Temba Bavuma is injured, but Stubbs has used his only opportunity so far to make a massive statement ahead of the T20 World Cup in Australia in October.
“We had full faith in Stubbs,” Lungi Ngidi, who was the pick of the Proteas bowlers with 5/39 (4), said after the match.
“During training he has shown us what he is capable of doing, so we weren’t really surprised to see what we saw today. I have bowled to him myself and I’ve been on the receiving end of what you guys saw tonight.
“He’s a very confident chap and you can see he’s a big guy. He strikes the ball well.
“That’s how he plays cricket. What you saw tonight is what he practices. I’m very happy for him to finally get a chance to go out and show the world what he can do and what he’s capable of.”
Ngidi added that, on the evidence of Wednesday, there was no reason why Stubbs couldn’t make a play at World Cup selection.
“He’s definitely put his hand up tonight for a spot in the World Cup,” said Ngidi.
“It’s exciting to see and I don’t think any coach would be sad with what he saw tonight. He’s got a long career ahead of him, and if this is how he’s going to keep going, it’s a bright future.”
Wednesday’s match produced an incredible 426 runs, and Ngidi said there was always faith in the Proteas dugout despite the score they were chasing.
“It was definitely a total we thought we could chase down. From the guys that had gotten out, the message we were getting from them was that it was a very good batting wicket and the boundaries were small,” said Ngidi.
“Our downfall was that we had probably lost too many wickets by the time we really needed to get going.”
The second of three T20s takes place in Cardiff on Thursday.
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