South Africa vs Sri Lanka 2019: 5 takeaways from the ODI series

#3. Proteas’ Bowling Looks Good but Some Questions Remain

Lungi Ngidi made a great comeback to the South African team in this series

The efforts by South African Bowlers in this series were pretty decent. They never allowed Sri Lanka to even threaten putting up a big score. The combination of Kagiso Rabada and Lungi Ngidi was very effective throughout the five matches.

What must have especially pleased the hosts is the great comeback by Ngidi. With Duanne Olivier withdrawing his services from South African cricket, the tall pacer became a crucial man for the team. By bowling as he did in this series, it was proved that he is a genuine talent and performer.

Imran Tahir continued his good work and seems to be heading into his last ODI event – he has announced his retirement after the World Cup – with his form fully intact. He displayed the full array of his skills in this series and plucked a good number of wickets. The leggie will be a major player for his team as the job of picking wickets in the middle overs rests with him. At the moment, he seems to do that as well as any other bowler in world cricket.

South Africa didn’t use Dale Steyn in this series except for the fourth ODI. This may be a smart strategy to keep him fresh for the World Cup. In the game that he did play, we didn’t see the Steyn of old. But he still managed good figures and with his quality and class, one can’t bet against him producing big performances in England.

Lastly, Anrich Nortje, the young pacer that everyone was excited to see, did well enough to protect his reputation and keep himself in the mix. Though he isn’t the finished product at the moment, the extra pace he provides might get him a place in World Cup squad.

Nortje, though, has to fight for his spot with the likes of Andile Phehlukwayo and Dwaine Pretorius. The latter two lack his pace but have more experience. Besides, the former can also contribute important runs down the order. It will be an interesting decision to make for the South African selectors.