The Proteas Veterans finalised their preparations for the Over-50 Cricket World Cup with a victory against the USA on Saturday, but it was a lot closer than they would have liked.

The visitors, some of who only arrived in the country on the morning of the game, won the toss and elected to bat first at the picturesque Reddam Constantia school.

The Proteas’ opening pair of Alan Dawson (5-1-9-0) and James Albanie (5-1-12-2) were all over the batsmen in the early stages, with the latter picking up the first two wickets as the USA slumped to 9/2 after five overs.

However, a 74-run third wicket partnership between Fazal Alam and Sajith Fernando put them back on track, with Alam in particular looking impressive on his way to 60 off 72 balls.

Grant Jansen (1/26 in 7) finally got the breakthrough before Lefty Ngece (2/26 in 6) and Saleem Mukkudem (2/18 in 5) tightened the screws, bowling the USA out for 150 in the 39th over.

The Proteas’ chase never really got going with wickets falling at regular intervals. Mukkudem top scored with 23, but in the end it was the 41-run eighth-wicket partnership between Dawson (21*) and Goolam Taliep (20) which got the hosts over the line, reaching the target with two overs to spare.

So a win to go into the 2023 Over-50 World Cup, which will again be sponsored by Evergreen Lifestyle, but Louis Koen and his team will know they’ll have to play a lot better when they face India in the opening game on Monday.