Road to success paved with consistency
The road to continued test success is paved with consistency, according to AB de Villiers, as South Africa prepare to take on Sri Lanka in the first test at SuperSport Park in Centurion from Thursday.
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South Africa, despite the abundance of experience and skill in their side, have not won a home test series in three years, since their triumph over Bangladesh in 2008/9. Excluding the minnows, South Africa’s last meaningful series wins at home were against New Zealand and the West Indies in 2007/8.
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But there are high hopes that South Africa will eventually get it right and beat a weakened, fading Sri Lankan team in this three-test series.
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“If we get a good cricket wicket and we play good cricket, then they’re not going to stop us,” De Villiers said on Monday. “We need to get back to playing consistently good cricket for longer periods, that’s probably the reason we haven’t won at home for a while. We want to do that for the whole series against Sri Lanka.”
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South Africa were roundly criticised for not sealing a series win over Australia last month when they went into the final test with a 1-0 lead and were bowled out on the first day in perfect batting conditions. The vice-captain said their aggressive approach was not wrong, their timing of when to launch was just a bit off.
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“I don’t think a different approach is needed, we’ve just got to read the situation and know when to absorb pressure and when to put it on the opposition.
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“Test cricket is all about momentum and you’ve got waves that are up and down. You’ve got to maximise your opportunities when you’re on top, when you have the opposition on the ropes. You’ve got to finish off the opposition, be aggressive, whether you’re batting or bowling,” De Villiers said.
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Half of the Sri Lankan squad are new to international cricket in South Africa and De Villiers said the Proteas will need to do plenty of studying in order to identify their strengths and weaknesses.
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“They have a lot of new players, I only recognise half of them, which makes it tough. So we have to do our homework, do a lot of video analysis and ask others about them too. The SA A team have just played them so we’ll be looking to someone like Vincent Barnes [SA A coach] as well. And I know Gary [Kirsten] has a few ideas and game-plans as well.
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“It means they’re going to be unpredictable, almost like Pakistan. So it’s most important for us to respect them, expect them to play like the number one team in the world,” De Villiers said.
http://www.supersport.com/cricket/sa-team/news/111212/Consistency_the_key_AB