Conrad happy with Proteas youngsters' standards

PRIOR to departing for Zimbabwe after the emotion of scaling their Everest by winning the World Test Championship at Lord's, Proteas coach Shukri Conrad would have made a mental note of the objectives he hoped his team would achieve in the land of Chevrons.

- ZAAHIER ADAMS

Much of it would have been to get his players back to ground zero, and that the youngsters afforded an opportunity in the absence of several starters from the WTC Final would take their chances to deepen the talent pool that Conrad has to select from for the prospective tougher contests in the subcontinent later this year.

The boxes were duly ticked with Conrad pleased his team maintained their high-performance levels throughout both Test matches.

"I think the important and the most impressive thing for me was how we managed to keep the standards as high as we set them both the first Test and the second Test," Conrad said, after the innings and 236-run victory in the second Test at the Queens Park Oval on Tuesday.

"Batting first, we found ourselves in a little bit of trouble against the new ball and then how the youngsters, Lhuandre (Pretorius) and Brevi (Dewald Brevis) managed that in the first Test.