There might be doubt hovering India's tour to South Africa over December and January, but SA 'A' and India 'A' are set to start their second four-day match at the Mangaung Oval in Bloemfontein on Tuesday.
The match will be streamed live on SuperSport’s YouTube page and on channel 246 on the DSTV Now App.
The first contest between the two sides ended in a draw after a combination of inclement weather and batter-friendly conditions scuppered any chance of a result.
South Africa declared on 509/7 in their first innings with Pieter Malan (163) and Tony de Zorzi (117) starring before the visitors delivered an imposing performance of their own with the bat, recording a total of 308/4 as the conditions cut their innings short.
SA 'A' head coach, Malibongwe Maketa was pleased with what he saw in the first match.
“It was a decent start in terms of the series,” Maketa noted.
“Losing the toss and being sent to bat, being two (wickets) down and the way we recovered was very positive.
“Well done to Pieter Malan on a good innings in terms of what we needed at the time as a team and gladly supported by (Sinethemba) Qeshile and Jason Smith, guys who came in and really batted well.
“We pride ourselves on partnerships, we got those, and it is something we want to build on.
“When it comes to the bowling, unfortunately we weren’t that good at the start, but we pulled it back quite nicely in terms of our control of line and length, which is encouraging and something we want to build on going forward into the next game.”
Looking ahead to the all-important second encounter, Maketa believes it will be vital for his team to remain intent on taking 20 wickets during the match, despite challenging conditions, to get the desired result.
“Going forward, it is important for us to stay positive in terms of looking to take 20 wickets,” he began.
“We’ve seen that it is not going to be easy, we knew coming in it was not going to be easy to take 20 wickets, so when it comes to our bowling attack, we are really going to be hard on ourselves in terms of our skillset and executing our disciplines to be able to take the 20 wickets.
“Without taking anything for granted, the batters will need to, again, put us in a position where we are able to set positive fields for long periods of time to be able to take 20 wickets.
“In saying all that, we still need to bat well, and we are looking to that challenge. It’s a good Indian team and the guys will be tested. A few guys are coming in from the Indian side, so we are looking forward to that as well.”
South Africa 'A' squad to play India 'A':
Pieter Malan (captain, GbetsRocks), Sarel Erwee (Hollywoodbets Dolphins), Edward Moore (Gbets Warriors), Raynard van Tonder (ITEC Knights), Sinethemba Qeshile (Gbets Warriors), Senuran Muthusamy (North West Dragons), Marco Jansen (Gbets Warriors), Migael Pretorius (ITEC Knights), Beuran Hendricks (Six Gun Grill Western Province), Lutho Sipamla (Imperial Lions), Glenton Stuurman (Gbets Warriors), George Linde (Six Gun Grill Western Province), Jason Smith (Hollywoodbets Dolphins), Tony de Zorzi (Six Gun Grill Western Province).
India 'A' squad touring South Africa:
Priyank Panchal (Captain), Prithvi Shaw, Abhimanyu Easwaran, Devdutt Padikkal, Sarfaraz Khan, Baba Aparajith, Upendra Yadav (wicketkeeper), K Gowtham, Rahul Chahar, Saurabh Kumar, Navdeep Saini, Umran Malik, Ishan Porel, Arzan Nagwaswalla