Striker Luther Singh was quick to highlight the effort of his teammates after his hat-trick earned South Africa a 3-1 win over Cameroon on Monday.

The Portugal-based player was the top goal scorer at the Cosafa Cup last year in Rustenburg, where South Africa fell in the final against Zambia, and seems to be providing solutions to South Africa’s scoring challenges.

‘I want to thank the team for the performance we put up last night, had it not been for the team effort I would not have scored the goals I did,’ said Singh, after the match.

‘(Sibongakonke) Mbatha did some great work in ensuring we got the set piece, and the penalty was something we had worked on at training. My third goal was a great counter attack and (Itumeleng) Shopane managed to give me the all-important pass, which I converted. We were also encouraged by our solid defence, which made things easy for us.

‘Although we conceded early, we managed to regroup quickly and stayed focused until the end to get the crucial win.’

Amajita face Senegal in the second match of the Caf u20 Africa Cup of Nations on Thursday, 2 March.majita faces Senegal in the second match of the Caf u20 Africa Cup of Nations on Thursday, 2 March.

‘The main aim is to qualify for the FIFA u20 World Cup in Japan later this year, but for now the focus is making it to the semi finals – and for that to happen we have to play our hearts out against Senegal and Sudan in our remaining group stage matches,’ said Singh.

‘We started very well and we are excited that we are top of the group, but we know there is still a lot of hard work to be done to reach our destination. Personally, I would like to score more goals, and also create scoring opportunities for my teammates so we can win games – and in the process market South African football because there is a lot of talent in our country.’

The Group B clash against Senegal takes place at the Levy Mwanawasa Stadium in Ndola, Zambia.

The match will kick-off at 18:00 and will be screened live on SuperSport 9.