Proteas limited-overs coach Rob Walter reckons there is more that 23-year-old Marco Jansen has to offer as the youngster helped South Africa seal a 3-2 series victory against Australia at the Wanderers yesterday.
The Proteas started the new season on a bad note when they were outplayed by an under-strength Australian team in the T20 series Durban.
Questions were asked on the players’ readiness for the 50-over World Cup when Aiden Markram and his T20 squad suffered a whitewash at the hands of the Australians.
It was even more concerning when SA went down in the first two ODIs in Bloemfontein.
Loss after loss, Walter would go into media engagements with an unmatched calmness, and would state that a few defeats could not define his team or his players.
Three matches later and Walter’s words make even more sense as the Proteas completed an emphatic 3-2 series triumph after winning the last encounter by 122 runs at “the Bullring” yesterday.
“It’s easy to get caught in the emotion. When you’re losing, no one likes losing, everyone likes winning,” Walter said afterwards.
“For me as a coach, it’s important to stay level-headed, to understand where we’re at as a team, what we’re working toward.
“There were moments in the first game, to be honest, we should have won. In the second, if two guys converted those 40s, we’d come close to winning the game.
“Losing is not everything. It doesn’t tell the full story. It’s about being able to pick apart the good stuff, understand the areas that we didn’t quite nail, and we just paid attention to that.”
Leading up to the fifth and final ODI against Australia, the batting group had performed well, but it was the all-rounder spot that still had question marks.
Jansen occupied that spot in the series, and was under pressure to deliver before the team go to India for the World Cup.
The youngster indeed did just that yesterday by scoring 47 off 23 balls, and then producing bowling figures of 5/39 to seal the series win for the Proteas.
“Marco has got such huge potential. We probably saw him realise a little bit today in that he contributed with bat and ball,” said Walter.
“There’s so much more in the tank with him, to be fair. For me, it is about enjoying the fact that he has put both bat and ball performances together, but understanding that he’s not even close to his ceiling yet – and that’s what I’ll be pushing him towards achieving.”
In addition, Markram continued with his fine form by scoring 93 off 87 balls (9x4, 3x6), while David Miller contributed 63 off 65 balls (4x4, 3x6) and Andile Phehlukwayo 38 not out off 19 balls (2x4, 4x6) as the Proteas ended on 315/9.
With the ball, Jansen was well supported by Keshav Maharaj (4/33) as the Proteas dismissed Australia for 193 in the 35th over.
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