Win against Australia light at the end of the tunnel, says Boucher

South Africa's ODI series victory over Australia was the "light at the end of the tunnel" for Team Director Mark Boucher, who remains optimistic about rebuilding a strong Proteas side despite a tough summer.

The former wicketkeeper-batsman took over in mid-December ahead of the England tour which saw South Africa lose a Test and T20 series while drawing a rain-affected ODI series.

The Proteas then suffered a home T20 series defeat to Australia before a young Quinton de-Kock-led side registered a 3-0 win over Aaron Finch's men in the ODIs.

"If I look back over the summer and reflect on the team's performances and progress, especially against England and Australia, I think it was quite disappointing to be honest," Boucher told 'Cricket South Africa'.

"Especially against England, we didn't perform like we wanted to perform. In saying that I think we, as a new coaching staff, asked some questions and I think we got some answers. Some were good and some were bad."
"The nice thing for me about the whole summer was the light at the end of tunnel, especially in our short formats. I think we have a lot of work to do with our Test cricket still, there's probably a lot of rebuilding in that respect."
"We had a couple of injuries as well which didn't help the cause, but I think the exciting thing for me was more the white-ball cricket and to see the guys grow a bit."
"We gave a bit of opportunity to a couple of youngsters and they really started to gel together as a team and not just rely on one particular guy to carry them through."
"Our selecting was effectively coming from a pool of 20 odd players, which was a lot better than going into a side where you just go, 'okay, well, these are eleven players that we're definitely going to play.'