Nothing that happened before counts — the real contest starts on Friday.
That was the message from South Africa’s premier bowler Dale Steyn, ahead of Friday’s Standard Bank Pro20 match at the Wanderers, which kicks off the series against England.
”England have done well in their warm-up matches, although they lost to South Africa A in their Twenty20 match last night,” Steyn said after team practice on Wednesday.
”We had a couple of good wins against Zimbabwe, especially in the second match, where our bowlers did much better than in the first.
”But all of that counts for nothing on Friday night. That’s when the momentum starts. The team that wins on Friday will have the momentum on their side.
”That’s why we are determined to win, and win well, so that we can ride our good form into the one-dayers and then into the Test matches.”
There will be two T20 games, followed by five one-day internationals, and the series will end with four Test matches.
Steyn said they were not aiming at targeting any specific England player, but would have plans for every member of the squad.
”Every tour or series throws up a player who becomes a hero,” he said.
”Look at JP [Duminy] for example. He went to Australia last year, not expecting to play. Then Ashwell Prince broke his hand and JP stepped in and became a hero.
”We don’t know which of the England players is going to put his hand up and become the team hero, so we are planning for all of them.”
He said South Africa had a lot of respect for the England team.
”Quite a few of them have played here before, and some of them have been putting in very good performances recently. We are really looking forward to this meeting.”
Asked whether he was satisfied with his own form, Steyn beamed.
”Absolutely,” he said. ”I’ve been feeling really good, and I’ve been hitting 150km an hour again.
”I played in a couple of SuperSport [Series] matches where there were about five people in the crowd — quite a change from the sort of abuse I get in a Test match! That gave me the chance to work on my bowling away from the public eye. I had some very good run-ins, and I’m raring to go.”
Steyn said he thought the new MTN40 format, where the longer domestic limited overs game had been reduced from 45 to 40 overs, helped the national players prepare for 50 over matches as well as T20s.
”Because the match is shorter, the batsmen seem to be more attacking,” he said.
”I did most of my bowling in the power plays, where the batters really go on the attack, and so that prepared me for the intensity of international cricket.”
There are still tickets available for the two T20 matches. The first will be played at the Wanderers at 6pm on Friday night and the second at SuperSport Park in Centurion at 2.30pm on Sunday afternoon. — Sapa