South Africa looks to bounce back at Newlands

By Rahul Bajaj
for Cricketain.com

Published: November 27, 2009

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Cape Town: South Africa may have had a bad couple of games against the touring England side but they are determined to fight back at Newlands in the third one-dayer to be played on Friday, said captain Graeme Smith.

“England have played very well and we’ll have to be at the top of our game tomorrow,” said Smith in a pre-match press conference on Thursday. “They played the big moments better at Centurion, they played the (big) situations with responsibility. But I’ve been pleased with our guys’ honesty and energy this week.”

South Africa lost the second ODI at Centurion by seven wickets after the first game was washed out by rain that put England 1-0 up in the series with three matches to play and Smith said that his team had to up the intensity in their game if they wanted to prove any competition to the England side.

“We’ve worked hard and we must play to our potential. If a team is putting on a 150-run partnership against you, like at Centurion, it looks like you don’t have the answers. But we are all motivated to put in a better performance,” Smith said.

He said that he wouldn’t like to give too much importance to reports that whoever batted first at Newlands had a better chance of winning. “I don’t think it’s like that too much anymore. There’s not as much grass (on the wicket) as before,” Smith said.

The Proteas captain also said that they are not paying any special attention to South Africa-born England batsman Jonathan Trott, who has been in good form on tour and who struck a fine 87 at Centurion.

Trott’s origins and the fact that he was a former teammate in the SA under-19 and Western Province teams did not bother him, Smith said. But he did concede that watching a South African batting in an England shirt and scoring runs against his home nation did pain him a bit.

Reflecting on the number of South African-born players now playing for other countries, Smith joked that someone should “work with the Rand (the South African currency)”.

“These days it’s more financial,” Smith said in reference to South African players moving abroad and trying to secure good contracts.

England captain Andrew Strauss, on the other hand, said it would be important for his side to not get complacent and maintain its winning momentum in the current series.

“In the past, maybe we have not been so good at following up a win with a better performance. We have to try to do that,” Strauss said. “When you have a bit of a run of (good) form, the last thing you want to do is give the opposition a chance to come back. South Africa are a quality side … to expect them to roll over and die would be pretty naive.”

England are expected to bring back all-rounder Stuart Broad who has recovered from his shoulder injury, while the Proteas might strengthen their bowling line-up by including left-arm speedster Wayne Parnell.

The Proteas have an incredible record at the Newlands ground, winning 24 of the 27 ODIs they have played at the venue.

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