South African cricket captain Graeme Smith arrived in Auckland on Thursday in a defiant mood, promising a sudden change of fortune in the one-day series for the tourists.
Trailing 1-3 in the six-match series, Smith’s side need to win Saturday’s fifth one-dayer here at Eden Park and the final match in Napier on Tuesday to avoid becoming the first South African team to lose a series against New Zealand.
However, if the pressure of making history for all the wrong reasons was starting to play on Smith, he isn’t showing it.
”The games have been close and the series could be 2-2,” he said.
”People are saying that New Zealand are playing at the top of their game but the facts are that we’re playing well below par, yet we’ve still been in most matches until the end.
”We’re playing nowhere near the standard that we’re used to, and need to improve urgently. But the good thing is, we’ve got lots of room for improvement.”
Smith was careful not to downplay the achievements of New Zealand, who he said had consistently played terrific cricket.
But he emphasised that the South Africans had struggled for consistency on the one-day scene since he took over the reins last March and, while appearing to make little progress over the past year, had not gone backwards either.
”We’ve been outplayed in key departments throughout the series and at key times, but I don’t think we’ve taken a step back,” he said.
”To be fair, New Zealand have played excellent cricket and they’ve played well in every game. But we know we can perform a lot better and maybe that’s the biggest difference at this stage.
”We think we can bounce back, definitely. The boys want to do well, and that was certainly apparent when we sat in the dressing room last night [after losing the match in Dunedin] and heard the disappointment in the guys’ voices.” — Sapa-NZPA