Last Updated on 1 month by Charbel Coorey

South Africa keeper-batsman Kyle Verryenne produced one of the finest knocks of his career, hitting 114 in challenging conditions when the game was in the balance against Bangladesh in Mirpur. He won man of the match for his performance, where he and the bowlers set the platform for the Proteas to go on and win by seven wickets.

Speaking exclusively to CricBlog, Verryenne spoke about the difficulty of the conditions, his career aspirations and South Africa’s focus on the World Test Championship Final. You can listen to the full audio and read some of the key quotes below.

Kyle Verryenne interview: Century in Mirpur, career aspirations, South Africa’s lack of Tests, WTC Final hopes

On the extreme conditions in Mirpur… How do you recover?

Kyle Verryenne: “It was a tough experience. Day one wasn’t too bad, I didn’t really bat much on day one, and it was quite overcast, so it wasn’t as bad. But, the morning of day two was quite hot, and it made things quite difficult.

“From a recovery point of view, we’ve just been really good with pre-planning and pre-game stuff to make sure we’re hydrated.

“On the evening of that day [day two]… it was probably the toughest conditions I’ve batted in purely from the fact that everything was so draining and still had to maintain concentration was really, really difficult.”

“I need to start putting in performances…”

Kyle Verryenne: “I was able to contribute to the team in such trying conditions… we were 90/5 or something like that when I came in, so to go on and get a hundred from there, being under a lot of pressure and also I feel like in my Test career, I’m at the point where I need to start putting in performances.

“It was a release of all those emotions. Bit more relief than anything else.”

Does South Africa’s lack of Test cricket impact your game?

Kyle Verryenne: “I think I’ve spoken about it before, I think it has a massive impact on the team especially when it comes to individual performances in terms of getting momentum. Fortunately now we’ve got quite a few Tests coming up over the home summer, so that’ll be a lot better.

“It’s difficult, we had our last Test series… I think it ended in August in the West Indies, and I felt like personally you are getting into a bit of form, and then you’ve got to wait another two months to get your next game, so that becomes quite difficult. For the early part of my career, that’s been the most challenging.

“Everytime you feel like you’re finding your feet and feel like you’re getting into a rhythm, you need to wait another 2-3 months for the Tests… and then it’s two Test matches and then you’ve got to wait another 2-3 months.

“I say it definitely has an impact on consistency and finding your feet, and I think that’s probably why it takes maybe a little bit longer for guys to find their feet at this level now because there’s not that much cricket, so hopefully we’ll see more consistency from the guys going forward.”

Any aspirations to bat up the order?

Kyle Verryenne: “Definitely. Domestically, I’m someone who likes batting a lot of time and scoring hundreds and big runs, so I’d definitely like to get to a point in my Test career where I’m playing more of a batting role where I’m expected to get big hundreds.

“Obviously where I’m batting now you can still impact the game, but it’s not always that your number 9, 10 and 11 are going to stick around with you for long periods of time. It’s hard to always get the chance to score big runs that I feel like I’m capable of doing at this level. It’s something for further down the line in my career where I’d like to bat in the top four or five.”

Is your game suited more to away conditions?

Kyle Verryenne: “Not really. If I’m being completely honest, I think I’ve played six Tests at home, and four of them have been against the best team of our generation [India] if you can call it that… on some of the toughest pitches South Africa has ever seen against one of the best seam attacks in the world.

“I feel very comfortable at home, and I think I can get the best out of myself at home. As we play more, hopefully my record at home will improve.”

On South Africa’s chances of reaching the WTC Final at Lord’s in 2025…

Kyle Verryenne: “I don’t think it’s a secret, we speak about it [reaching the final] in the change room all the time. We want to play in that final and win the Test Championship. It’s a cliche to say you take one game at a time but… in reality, we know exactly what we need to do.

“Whilst we stay focused on what we need to do, we’re all looking ahead to that, and that’s definitely the target. I don’t want to say ‘if we don’t get there, we won’t be happy’, there’s processes and things we need to follow, but if we do get to that final, it won’t be something we weren’t expecting… it will be a goal achieved, and something we set out to do.

“It’s definitely something we put a lot of emphasis on. Hopefully we keep doing what we’re doing, because we’re on the right track to get there.”