The captain of the South African cricket team, Graeme Smith, said South Africa planned to build on their excellent performance in the last two Standard Bank matches for the remainder of the seven-match series against England.
Speaking after South Africa’s emphatic 108 run victory in the fourth match at Newlands on Sunday, Smith said the team was still hungry for success.
”We would like to put ourselves ahead by two,” said Smith.
”We’re looking to build on the performance we’ve had in the last two games, and keep on building. Winning becomes a habit and it’s crucial that we continue to play that way.
”We’re hungry, and we want to put on another good performance in East London. But it’s a different ground, different atmosphere, and it’s a day-night game, so there’ll be different things to adapt to, but we plan to put on another good team performance there.”
Smith said Sunday’s win was one of South Africa’s best since he took over as captain in 2003.
”We hammered the West Indies here last year, and that was a good game, but I think all round, in the last two games, it’s been the two best team performances I’ve seen, where it hasn’t been dominated by one guy — everyone’s contributed and played a role in the win. For me, that’s fantastic. If you start building a good team, where anyone can win games for you, then you start going places.”
He said it was very important that there had been good partnerships in the top four batsmen in the last three games. ”You start getting big scores when you start getting those partnerships,” he said.
”It’s important that the top players set a good platform so that we can build on that.”
Man of the match Herschelle Gibbs said he was enjoying playing at number four. ”I know what’s expected from me, and I feel quite relaxed playing there.” He said he was very happy to have scored his 14th century at Newlands. ”I love playing here — for me, it’s the best ground in the world,” he said.
”I think everybody that was watching today — at least the South Africans — was sharing my joy. I’ve been part of Newlands for the past 16 years, and I really love it here.”
England captain Michael Vaughan said England were disappointed at their performance on Sunday, but warned that they were by no means out of the series. ”It was a bit like our Test performance at the same ground. We’ve got to pick ourselves up and make sure we play a lot better in East London.”
He said it was hard to say why England had not performed well. ”You can talk about a long tour and a tough schedule, but we’re not using that as an excuse. We just didn’t hit our straps, and we had something like 18 extras in the innings. We had an opportunity to have them 60-odd for three, and we didn’t take it. From there on, with their batting line up, you know that if you don’t take the wickets quite early, they can capitalise on the last 12 to 14 overs.
”Once Kallis and Gibbs were in and knocking the ball about nicely, we knew those last 10 overs were going to be brutal.”
Vaughan said England had not batted well, and had not been patient enough, chasing more than 290 runs. ”We were also pretty average with the ball today,” he said. ”Our fielding was OK, and we’ll make sure we get better and play better in East London. We’re certainly not out of the series.” – Sapa