The Proteas have qualified for the World Cup tournament in India. (Photo: Phill Magakoe/AFP.)
The Proteas qualified for the World Cup cricket tournament in India after the first ODI between Ireland and Bangladesh was rained out.
The Irish should have made a clean sweep of their series against the Tigers to defeat the South Africans, but rain ended the match in the 18th over of their at-bat.
“We are obviously pleased that we followed a more direct qualification path,” said Rob Walter, the Proteas’ white-ball cricket coach, in an interview with Cricinfo.
Ireland will now have to participate in a qualifying tournament in Zimbabwe. Sri Lanka and the West Indies – two former champion teams – will also be in action at this tournament.
However, the Proteas will play very few fifty over matches in the next few months – the team will only meet again in September in a home series against Australia.
“However, we have some intended training camps for the winter month in the run-up to the matches against Australia,” confirmed Walter.
In addition, there is also an A-team tour to Sri Lanka, while stars such as David Miller and Aiden Markram at least get a chance to play in the Indian Premier League.
As far as one-day international cricket is concerned, the South Africans have performed well in their recent series against England and the Netherlands.
Markram, along with Miller and Sisanda Magala, were the stars in the Proteas’ convincing 146-run victory in their last match against the Netherlands at the Wanderers.
The 28-year-old batsman scored his first one-day international century and was eventually bowled out for 175 runs. He shared a brisk partnership of 199 runs for the fifth wicket with Miller (91 runs) to ensure that South Africa could score 370/8 in its allotted 50 overs.
Magala then took five wickets to bowl out the visitors for 224 runs.
Teams that have already qualified for the World Cup:
India, England, New Zealand, Pakistan, Australia, Bangladesh, Afghanistan and South Africa.
SOUTH AFRICA QUALIFY FOR THE MEN’S ODI WORLD CUP! ????????
A washout in Ireland’s 1st ODI against Bangladesh means the Proteas take the final automatic spot at #CWC23 pic.twitter.com/Swd5yJdQPX
— ESPNcricinfo (@ESPNcricinfo) May 9, 2023
