South African cricket coach Mickey Arthur was understandably delighted that his team managed to take their experience from the Standard Bank Pro20 Series into the international arena when they hammered the West Indies by eight wickets in an impressive start to the Twenty20 World Championship at the Wanderers on Monday night.
”We set ourselves little targets along the way and I am very, very happy with the way it went. Herschelle [Gibbs] managed the run chase brilliantly,” Arthur said.
Arthur will be less delighted, however, with the news that match-winner Gibbs is considered just a 50/50 starter for the match against Bangladesh at Newlands on Saturday after injuring himself in his brilliant 90 not out off 55 balls.
”A first-degree-plus strain of the hamstring of the right leg” is medical code meaning Gibbs will probably be rested for South Africa’s second and last group game, with Gulam Bodi, AB de Villiers and JP Duminy all waiting in the wings to take his place alongside Graeme Smith at the top of the order.
There was happy — more like ecstatic, in fact — news for Arthur on the Smith front with the captain being given the all-clear for Saturday after copping a nasty blow to the hand on the first ball of the South African innings.
The number-one-ranked Twenty20 player was taken for X-rays and an MRI scan that showed that the hand suffered no fractures and the left-hander will just have to wait for the bruising to subside before batting again.
The South African coach was satisfied, if not overjoyed, by the bowling effort at the Wanderers.
”I think the bowlers need to work on a lot more variations; for instance I didn’t see any yorkers being bowled. Shaun Pollock [4-0-52-1] is not a major worry, he’ll pull it back. He bowled particularly well against Sri Lanka and very well against Australia in the warm-up games over the weekend,” Arthur said.
The country has really taken to Standard Bank Pro20 Series cricket, so it is no surprise the opening match of the inaugural world championship was a tremendous success.
”I think the tournament is going to be quite spectacular and it will really showcase our country. There was a great atmosphere and the rest of the event is going to be well worth watching,” Arthur said.
The South Africans travelled to Cape Town on Wednesday and are expecting life to be a little easier for the bowlers.
”We don’t think the scores are going to be quite the same on the coast,” Arthur said. ”I hear it’s raining again in Cape Town. We will need to reassess and how teams adapt to conditions is going to be vital.” — Sapa