A career-best unbeaten 222 from skipper Zubayr Hamza and a well-composed maiden first-class ton (124*) from Sinethemba Qeshile have placed South Africa A comfortably in pole position at the close of Day 3 of the 1st unofficial Test match against Zimbabwe A.

Zimbabwe put together a decent 344, with Daryn Dupavillon being SA’s pick of the bowlers, taking 5/69.

In response, the South Africans started positively, with left-handers Ed Moore and Ryan Rickelton adding 179 runs together. Moore may have come up short of his ton, but Rickelton successfully reached his milestone. Zimbabwe fought back briefly, courtesy offspinner Roy Kaia who took two wickets in four balls.

However, the stars of the show – Hamza and Qeshile – accumulated briskly with flashes of aggression from time to time. They’d add a total of a whopping 339 runs, and they both eclipsed their previous personal-best scores.

It’s a very encouraging sign to see multiple young players step up with the bat, especially during these trying times at Test level for the Proteas. Zubayr Hamza had a rough initiation to Test cricket, but with consistent performances like these in the A side, he will be back in the mix sooner than later.

In addition, Qeshile is another of the highly-rated young batsmen that are tipped to represent SA across formats in the future. Through his experiences for the Warriors as well as at the fringes of the Proteas side, he’s made systematic progress so far.