South African cricket captain Graeme Smith said on Friday that it was ‘very satisfying’ to win the Standard Bank one-day series against England, after the South African team’s dismal performance in 2004, when they won only two out of 15 one-day matches.
South Africa, who went into the sixth match at Kingsmead in Durban with an unbeatable three-one lead, secured the Basil D’Oliveira Trophy when the match was abandoned because of rain.
”Obviously it would have been more satisfying if we had won the match, but we think we earned the series win. We were under a lot of pressure after losing the first match at the Wanderers, and we had two tense matches after that, but to come through has been superb.”
Smith said the team had been very disappointed to lose the Test series but he was pleased with the way they had bounced back to take the one day series. He said the two series were of equal importance. ”Any time you play for your country is important,” he said. ”If you don’t see it that way, it’s a cop-out.”
He said that although South Africa had been bowled out for 211 before completing their overs, they had felt that they had a good chance of winning the match.
”We were possibly about 15 runs short of what we needed, but we knew the pitch would do a lot at night, so we really believed we could do it.”
He had special praise for Herschelle Gibbs, the only South African to make a substantial score. Gibbs made 118 — his 15th one day century and his second in the series.
”He’s really established himself at number four – I think we ‘d battle to get him away from there,” he laughed.
”He really has been superb.”
Smith said he thought the reason South Africa had been successful was that they had had some good partnerships in all the matches. ”Runs on the board create pressure,” he said. However, he believed there were still some aspects of their bowling that needed tweaking.
Michael Vaughan said that England also believed they had a chance of winning the match.
”All you need is one big partnership,” he said. ”Our bowlers were superb today, and were really attacking.” ‘
He said that while they were disappointed to have lost the series, there were many positives that had come out of it.
”Kevin Pietersen, Kabir Ali and Darren Gough were all superb. Dazzer (Gough) in particular has been superb – the old warhorse that he is.”
He said that even though the last game at Supersport Park in Centurion on Sunday would be a dead rubber, England would go all out to win it, because they wanted to get on the plane home with a win under their belts.
”We’ve learnt a lot from this series, and it’s all part of building up for the World Cup in 2007,” he said. ”There are things that can improve, but we ‘re learning all the time.” – Sapa