Proteas need another solid performance

South Africa's match against Australia in Bridgetown is an important one in the context of a competition in which all three teams are desperately seeking some consistency.

South Africa's match against Australia in Bridgetown is an important one in the context of a competition in which all three teams are desperately seeking some consistency.

Published Jun 18, 2016

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Stunning seaside views, delightful beach-side restaurants and night time spent watching the NBA Finals have provided sufficient distraction for the players of the three cricket teams participating in the triangular series in the Caribbean.

Proteas all-rounder Wayne Parnell has certainly enjoyed the aggression and drive of basketball superstar Lebron James, who has dragged his Cleveland Cavaliers team from the depths of despair in the Finals to the brink of an unlikely triumph.

“Well well. @KingJames brought the (fire). Things are going to be lit in #Game7 of the #NBA Finals. Let’s go!!” Parnell tweeted.

Later, as the result which confirmed the Cleveland team had won and tied the Finals series against the Golden State Warriors at three games apiece, Parnell added: “Game 6 highlights consisted of LeBron!!! LeBron!!! LeBron!!! LeBron!!! LeBron!!! LeBron!!”

Sadly for Parnell, unless there’s rain in Bridgetown, Barbados, tomorrow evening, or one of South Africa or Australia achieve a blowout win at the Kensington Oval, he, and whoever else of the players are basketball fans, are likely to miss the first half of the action in Game 7 of the NBA Finals.

While lacking the prestige and razzmatazz of one of the biggest events on the American sports calendar, South Africa’s match against Australia in Bridgetown tomorrow (7pm SA time) is nevertheless an important one in the context of a competition in which all three teams are desperately seeking some consistency.

South Africa will hope that following their best all-round performance of the tournament against the West Indies on Wednesday, they can maintain that momentum for the next week in which the competition concludes.

The batting, led by a fine opening stand between Hashim Amla and Quinton de Kock, was certainly the best it’s been in the last fortnight.

Those two provided a solid platform from which the likes of Chris Morris and Faf du Plessis could produce a late-innings assault.

Where they’d struggled to close out the innings, and the match, in their previous game against Australia, against the West Indies South Africa smashed 105 runs in the last 10 overs, putting the match well out of reach of Jason Holder’s side.

That also allowed spinners Imran Tahir and Tabraiz Shamsi greater freedom to attack and it’s a blueprint the players will want to replicate against the world champions tomorrow.

Australia’s goals are similar to South Africa’s.

Consistency has been hard to find, but Steve Smith’s group are nothing if not a tournament-savvy one and they know that the next two matches provide an opportunity to secure a spot in next Sunday’s final.

“We’ve got two games left and then hopefully a final and at the end of the day you just want to get into a final, and it doesn’t matter how you get in there,” Australia’s elegant left-hander Usman Khawaja remarked.

“I still think we are playing some really good cricket ... we’ve shown glimpses of (good form) but from one game to the next we haven’t been able to bring it together, which is one of the things we really want to do.

“We want to be consistent when we have the game by its haunches and we want to build that consistency over a long period of time.”

The Australians have had some time off in Bridgetown following their defeat earlier in the week to the West Indies in St Kitts. They had a tough training session Thursday, when they focused entirely on fielding - a punishment session of sorts from stand-in coach Justin Langer after a laboured performance in that category against the West Indies, when Khawaja dropped two catches.

“Obviously it’s a big part of cricket, a big part of what we do well. If we’re fielding well, we usually win games, so it’s quite important. I’m not the first person to drop a catch. It happens. You try and move on as quickly as possible,” said Khawaja. - Saturday Star

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