The West Indies, dejected though they were after the mauling they suffered during “AB hour” at the Wanderers on Sunday, are adamant that the five-match one-day international series against South Africa is still very much alive.
“We came here to play a full series,” stand-in coach Stuart Williams insisted yesterday, as his team prepared for this afternoon’s pivotal third rubber at Buffalo Park in East London.
“The series is still on, and we’ve got three games left. We’ve just got to lift ourselves and get ready for the third game,” he explained, even as he acknowledged the mayhem that AB de Villiers, in particular, as well as Hashim Amla and Rilee Rossouw, had caused his side.
None of the West Indian bowlers, save for the grumpy Sulieman Benn – who finished his overs just before De Villiers went ballistic – were spared, as even good balls found their way to the fence, or over it.
“That was just cricket, but what happened in Joburg is behind us now. We’ve got to start from zero, and all the guys are in good spirits after having a good team meeting,” Williams revealed.
Certainly, the slaughterhouse that the Wanderers has become may need the venue’s nickname to be change to the Bully-ring, but the Proteas will be hard pressed to repeat their record-breaking antics in the altogether calmer backwaters of East London.
“I think we know that games like that don’t happen very often,” the understated Amla smiled yesterday.
“So we took it as a very good, solid win for us, but this is a new game,” he warned.
From experience, South Africa’s “Silent Warrior” knows that the Buffalo Park strip and outfield are primed for inifinitely calmer grazing by batsmen, as opposed to the stampede that the Wanderers seems to ignite.
“The scores here are generally a lot lower, and the outfield is also bigger and a bit slower,” Amla agreed.
“The wicket is slower, so we will need a different type of mindset. It’s a lot harder to bat, and there is not a lot of seam assistance for bowlers, so it will require a different set of skills,” he added.
Amla, still beaming from notching his ODI best at the Wanderers, is ever wary of their opponents striking back with the venom that they showed in the T20 series.
“With the West Indies, you never know. They could turn up and be really dangerous. They’ve got a lot of dangerous players, like Chris Gayle, Dwayne Smith, and a guy like Darren Sammy bats down at eight or nine,” he pointed out.
Challenge
“So, if they come off, it would be a good challenge for our bowlers. You never know, maybe they are due one,” he pondered.
That the West Indians remain a potent outfit is in no doubt. But, as brilliantly brazen as they were in the shortest format of the game, where recklessness trumps responsibility, they have been short of patience in the longer format.
The likes of Gayle, and Marlon Samuels, who was a titan during the first half of this trip, have come short three times in a row now. As Amla said, they are certainly due to bounce back, but Williams is not interested in individual flutterings from his powerful batsmen.
“It’s always good when your senior players lead from the front, and we expect them to, then the junior players can follow.
“To beat South Africa, we will need a total team effort.” - The Mercury