Ten out of the 16 South Africa A players have been hospitalised in Chennai, forcing their match on Monday against Australia A to be postponed to Tuesday.
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South Africa A were due to play Australia A today but the team management requested India “A” coach Rahul Dravid and the organisers to change the schedule to allow their players to recuperate and were immediately obliged.
Due to the hospitalisation of the players, India A will replace South Africa A in Monday’s tri-series match against Australia A.
Opening batsman Quinton de Kock managed a century before he was taken to hospital also. “The same applied to De Kock who was hospitalised after the match”, the release said.
But before that, the wicket-keeper batsman scored his ninth List A century despite being forced into action in less that 24 hours of landing in India to complete the numbers.
There was another interesting development as the boundary ropes were taken at least 10 yards behind from where they were during the last match between India “A” and Australia “A”.
The biggest concern for the South Africans right now would be to put together a playing XI given the medical crisis which the team finds itself in.
The extraordinary situation led South Africa A to use video analyst Henrikus Coertzen in the field, as well as India A’s Mandeep Singh, to finish the ongoing game.
The fifth over, bowled by Tsotsobe, was another maiden but crucially he had the bad luck of seeing the other opener, Unmukt Chand, dropped twice in the space of four balls, first by Dane Vilas behind the stumps and then by De Kock at backward point.
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While six players were admitted to the hospital on Saturday, four more were hospitalised yesterday. South Africa A’s reserves list for the game included Wayne Parnell, Beuran Hendricks, Cameron Delport, Cody Chetty and Keshav Maharaj, but only Hendricks and Maharaj came out as substitute fielders.
