There has been immense intensity in the practice sessions of the South African team. Batsmen middling the ball, pacers hitting the right lengths and bowling with a threatening pace and the fielders enjoying their drills, holding on to those skiers and flat ones at the slip cordon.
South Africa captain AB de Villiers said there won’t be any lack of intensity on the field either when they take on India on Sunday. “Friendships are not going to play a role tomorrow,” the captain said. “Every game we play, we want to win. We have prepared in order for us to win this game, and we are as ready as we can be. We are just going to go out there and give it our best shot tomorrow.
“We know India are still the World Champions. We know they are an incredible cricket team, so the respect factor is definitely still there. We know they are a very dangerous side, and we are going to play accordingly and hopefully come out on top tomorrow.”
South Africa are also looking to strangle the Indian batting line-up with their solid pace attack that has names like Dale Steyn, Morne Morkel and Vernon Philander. Pacers aside, although the Indian batsmen are considered to be good players of spin, AB reiterated that one of their front line spinners, Imran Tahir would make it to the line-up.
“He has been one of our best bowlers over the last two years,” AB said of Tahir. “There is no way that he will not play unless there is some funny injury over the next 24 hours. I see him as a match winner against any team in the world. It's a matter of bowling him at the right times, and that's my job, to make sure he bowls at the right times in order to give him the best opportunity to win us games, and that's what he's best at doing. I can't see him not playing tomorrow.”
Talking about his team’s batting, AB was of the view that the top four held key to the success. “The top four have been the reason why we have won games in the last few years. The top four, I believe is the best top four in the world at the moment who have scored all the runs over the last few years and won us some really important games.
“We have had some issues in our middle-order of guys really stepping up and finishing games. But we have seen big improvements over the last few games and they are sort of stepping up. I see it as a big area in all formats of the game, to win your games,” he said.
The Proteas have included Michael Hussey in their fold for the World Cup as the team’s batting consultant. de Villiers said that with his immense knowledge of the Australian conditions, Hussey brings a lot to the table.
“Michael Hussey is there just to make sure that confidence levels run high in the middle order. Hussey is a great finisher. He has handled pressure situations really well and that's the kind of people that we like to have in our squad.”
“Having Hussey on the sidelines, the former Australian batsman has given some words of wisdom to the team about playing at the MCG. “He has spoken about the analysis of the conditions, what to expect, what not to expect and he was just there to give us some confirmation that we are on the right track. It is nice to have him around, a guy with great experience, a guy that's won a World Cup before.”
Elaborating on the wicket at the MCG, de Villiers said. “I have never played at the MCG with a lot of pace and bounce. It has always been quite slow, which doesn't suit us that well. The last game we played here against Australia was one of the slowest wickets I have ever batted on. At night maybe it skids on a little bit more, which will bring us in attack a little bit more into the game, but also you get value for your shots a little bit more. It is certainly not a quick wicket and we have to just adapt as quickly as possible, assess the conditions and try and get the momentum on our side.”
If India have the challenge of countering the pace of South Africa, South Africa need to be wary of the spin twins R Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja. AB was of the view that the team has given it a thought and strategies are in place for every member of the Indian team.
“We have covered all their batsmen and bowlers. We have played spin really well over the last five years. It is definitely not a weakness of our team. R Ashwin is a wonderful bowler. We know what he is all about and we have got respect for him and his abilities as a bowler.
“We know the seamers they have but all three of their spinners are dangerous players and can turn the game around for India. It is a matter of applying yourself out there and getting used to the conditions. It is about making it count once you get a bit of momentum behind you.”
