The Proteas canceled their practise this morning and sent Captain Graeme Smith to chat to the media at 11:30 am (ish) today.
South Africa are carrying back-to-back defeats from matches in Johannesburg (by one run) and Cape Town (by two wickets).
Commenting on this Smith said; “I think it could be a blessing in disguise for us. We have trained a lot together over the last period of time. May be it’s about just lightening things a little bit. But tomorrow we have to come out and play our best. Now that the World Cup squad is announced, there will be no pressure on the players.”
“So, hopefully we can play with more freedom tomorrow,” the skipper said.
On losing Smith said; “Losing is never a nice thing but there were some important lessons for us in the last two games. Now it’s time for us to learn from those lessons. We have to keep a good positive frame of mind, an attacking frame of mind tomorrow. It is an important game for us in this series, a game that we must win. So, it’s a good challenge for us as a team,” Smith said.
A loss in Port Elizabeth will see South Africa’s first ODI series defeat against India on home soil.
Indian offspinner, Harbhajan Singh came in for some praise from Smith; “Harbhajan bowled extremely well. The nature of the wickets suited him. The wickets haven’t been easy to bat on and India also struggled to bat on those wickets.”
Commenting on the ‘sometimes erratic lights’ Biff said; “With the lights not being so great here, toss is always going to play a big role but teams have won chasing here. The weather is not something I am going to sleep over tonight. I will be thinking about the game on hand tomorrow,” Smith said.
Asked about the current management controversy in which CSA president Mtutuzeli Nyoka has reportedly been asked to resign Smith said that South Africa’s cricketers will concentrate on their preparations for the Cricket World Cup and not become embroiled in the controversy over Cricket SA’s President.
“We’ve successfully stayed away from that sort of stuff,” Smith said.
“It’s our job to really focus on the cricket and not get caught up in that,” said Smith.
“The players themselves have enough to worry about with the pressures and responsibility of going to a world cup and that’s our primary focus at the moment,” he said.
“We’ve got to trust that there are people above us who can handle that and do their jobs properly.”
“Like they trust us to play cricket and to be successful, we’ve got to trust them.”
Good news for Port Elizabeth Cricket is that ALL tickets to the game have been sold.
The pitch was looking flat today and. with a little bit of grass. so it should be quite slow to begin with.
The latest Weather Forecast is showing 22 knots of wind, 80 to 98% Cloud Cover, 24 degrees Celsius and no rain. So, winning the toss is looking like being all important in to-morrow’s game.
Let us hope that the local Warriors players in the squad and legendary Port Elizabeth support will carry the Proteas to a win.
Alan Straton
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