Lack of confidence is like a cancer and South Africa’s batsmen certainly did not dispel all the demons of the a year ago at Kingsmead, but Du Plessis still feels they are all in good form.
Advertisement
“The one-off match is now a decider, we are going to have to be on top of our game”.
This is the first time Test cricket has been played in South Africa in August, nearly two months before the usual start of the season – Durban failed to make the grade after re-seeding the outfield only two months before the match.
But at the Centurion, a lush green outfield, planted with winter grass in April, awaited the played and had du Plessis excited about playing at his home ground. “It´s in fantastic nick, the outfield is looking awesome”. “It’s the best I’ve ever seen it”.
With South Africa a lowly seventh in the Test rankings, du Plessis, standing in as South Africa captain in place of the injured AB de Villiers, said the team wanted to play more Test matches in a longer series.
South Africa has an outstanding record at SuperSport Park winning 16 of the 21 Tests played there and losing just two. With the current schedule, a five-Test series will be hard to slot-in going forward.
“I personally like three or four Test series”. A number of batsmen got starts but could not convert those into bigger scores, which would be a worry for the team management.
New Zealand have the type of attack though that can exploit any weaknesses in confidence or temperament, and Neil Wagner, born and raised in Pretoria, is surely eagerly awaiting this Test.
Williamson was less concerned about the prospect of one match deciding the series.
“But it would be nice to play three or more Tests in a series”. It was a fantastic cricket wicket for this time of the year, if the weather was good it would have been a good test match.
“We don’t play a lot of Tests at home”.
“They are a team that know how they want to play”. “Definitely, there is more pressure, especially because we are a team that is very disappointed with where we are lying on the rankings at the moment”.
The hosts go into the match buoyed by the form shown by opening bowlers Dale Steyn and Vernon Philander, both returning from injury, although they only bowled six overs each before rain intervened on the second day in Durban. If you look at India, this season they have got 15 Tests coming up in their country.
Williamson, however, felt New Zealand had fielded the most balanced team they could. “It would be nice to have a seam bowling all-rounder but that is a luxury we don´t have”. “The lower order is always looking to improve and someone like Doug Bracewell is looking to try to play that allrounder role. We want to win as many Tests as possible to try and jump up that ladder again”, he said.
Advertisement
He said it was necessary to plant winter grass because fielders struggled on dry, dormant summer grass when the same two countries met in a one-day global in August past year.
