GRAHAM GRIFFITHS, Northampton | Wednesday 10.30am.
HANSIE Cronje’s South Africans are braced for a Sri Lanka backlash when the teams clash in a World Cup group A match on Wednesday.
Holders Sri Lanka have a pressing need to win the second of their five first-round games after losing the opening match against England at Lord’s last Friday by eight wickets, the 11th defeat in their last 15 one-day internationals
Captain Cronje said after his squad practised at Northamptonshire’s county ground on Tuesday that they were prepared for Sri Lanka to bounce back strongly.
”That’s one thing we are very aware of and it’s been stressed already in the team talks,” Cronje said. ”They play well against South Africa and we’ve got to make sure we go out there and play as well as we can.
”They showed last year (in the one-off test against England) at The Oval and in the triangular tournament here (against England and South Africa) that they can play well in these conditions, so we must make sure we stay on top of them.”
Sri Lanka captain Arjuna Ranatunga is in no doubt about the significance of the match in terms of their prospects of progressing in the tournament.
”This is our most important game. If we lose to South Africa it will be difficult to get to the semi-finals because of the points system,” he said.
Sides who go through to the Super Six second stage will carry forward the points they gained against fellow first-round qualifiers, a crucial element in deciding the semifinalists.
If Sri Lanka followed their defeat by England with another to South Africa and then found themselves in the Super Six with those two teams they would not have any points to add to their second stage tally.
South Africa go into Wednesday’s game after opening their Cup challenge with a four-wicket victory over India at Hove on Saturday, a performance that left South Africa’s captain concerned only about the 25 extras they conceded.
”The number of wides (11) and no-balls (6) is something we can look at. If everybody else is conceding about 20 extras we would like to be a step ahead and be at about 10.
”Other than that, in the first 15 overs it took us a while to get into the game and that is something to be addressed so we can make sure we are sharp from the start.”
South Africa’s limited overs form coming into the World Cup contrasts sharply with that of the Sri Lankans, Cronje’s men having trounced West Indies 6-1 at home and beaten New Zealand 3-2 away. But they remain acutely aware of the need not to underestimate their rivals.
”Every game in the first three is going to be huge for us and we very much try to focus on these opening three but whether we be tagged as (Cup) favourites or not is not going to affect the way we play,” the skipper said.
South Africa’s great strength is their depth of all-round ability and Cronje is particularly pleased with how the balance of his side has developed. — Reuters