Proteas not fazed by Walter’s insider knowledge, says George Linde

When the Proteas face New Zealand at the Harare Sports Club in their second match of the Tri-Nation Series on Wednesday (1pm), the familiar face of Rob Walter will be in the opposing dugout. 

Walter coached the Proteas white-ball team for two years until April and there is no doubt he will know the tactical strengths and weaknesses of most of the players, having worked with them in the national set-up and watched them on the domestic circuit.

The Proteas beat Zimbabwe by five wickets in their opening game on Monday and a win against the Black Caps will put them in the driver’s seat for the rest of the series.

Proteas spinning-all-rounder George Linde, who picked up three wickets for 10 runs in the Zimbabwe game, said on Tuesday they are not too concerned about Walter having inside intel.

He said the Proteas contain fresh faces and have a few surprises in their bag of tricks.

“It is probably not the A-side or the proper Proteas side,” he said. “Most of the guys are resting after the Test championship.

“There are guys who want to do well and make their mark in the team. Everyone plays differently now than they did months back.”

Like the Proteas, the Black Caps are not at full capacity, missing top batter Kane Williamson and quick bowlers Lockie Ferguson and Kyle Jamieson. 

There is also the chance they will be missing Michael Bracewell, Mark Chapman, Glenn Phillips and Rachin Ravindra for the game on Wednesday as they have joined the squad late after appearances in the Major League Cricket competition.

Linde said the remaining players in the Black Caps squad, who last played the white-ball format in April, are going to put up a decent fight.

Among those will be South African-born batter Devon Conway, who played in the SA20 for the Joburg Super Kings.

“If you look at their squad, they have played a lot of cricket. Most of their guys have been involved in county cricket, they have played in America and the Indian Premier League. 

“So I think they’ve played quite a bit of cricket — and so did we, as well. So it’s obviously going to be a good game and hopefully we’ll go one ahead of them,” Linde said.

The Proteas have won four of the last five games between the two sides, but remarkably they have not played each other in T20s since 2017.