With the first series win of the season firmly under his belt, Proteas captain Graeme Smith’s eyes are now on England.
South Africa on both of their one-day international matches played against Zimbabwe this week. The first, by 45 runs at Willowmoore Park in Benoni on Sunday, was somewhat pedestrian and less than convincing, but South Africa roared back in the second match at Supersport Park on Tuesday to score 331 for five, and then bowl the visitors out for 119 to win by a massive 212 runs.
”You can only really gauge yourself on your opposition, but today we performed well,” Smith said after the match.
”When you win by over 200 runs, it’s hard to find areas that you can complain about.
”But we know that there’s a stiffer challenge in the summer, and our focus now turns to that. I’m excited that what we’re now looking at a summer against England, and that’s a wonderful challenge. It always has been, throughout my career, and it starts on Friday. I think the rest of us are also excited.”
Smith said he was pleased with the improvement in South Africa’s performance in the second match against Zimbabwe.
”The batting was good again today, and it was nice to see a lot of the guys get time in the middle.
”From a bowling perspective, we were good for 30 overs the other day, and today we managed to maintain our intensity for the whole game.
”I said the other day I wanted to see the graph on an upward curve and we did that today.”
Smith was not prepared to get carried away by the outcome of the Twenty20 match between England and South Africa A in Bloemfontein, where South Africa A won by four wickets, after bowling England out for 89 in the 18th over.
”It’s fantastic that the South Africa A side has played well and beaten England, but we know from touring that it’s the real international matches that really count,” he said.
The series against England starts at the Wanderers on Friday, with the first of two Twenty20 matches.
The second will be played at Centurion on Sunday, and this will be followed by five ODIS, and four Tests.
Smith said he was keen to do well in the two T20s.
”They are obviously crucial to the series,” he said.
”We want to take nothing for granted. We want to perform well in those games and start the whole summer well, so that’s our focus now, and then we’ve got a whole week to prepare for the first ODI.” — Sapa