India need to find answers ahead of third Test
A HAPPY MAN: Pitso Mosimane head coach of Mamelodi Sundowns is backing his current crop of players to be even more dominant in the future. AS HIS counterparts continue to look at his Mamelodi Sundown squad with envy, Pitso Mosimane believes that the club’s 2017/18 season roster of players is the best he has put together in the five years at Chloorkop.
But Mosimane warns that they have to win trophies.
“In reality, the one that we won, the CAF Champions League (in
2016), is the one that’s on the pedestal, until another team takes it,” the coach said after his fearsome Brazilians thumped relegation-threatened Platinum Stars 3-0 on Saturday night to remain top of the Absa Premiership table.
“We don’t want to talk about what’s on paper. It should be there on the pitch. We have to beat 71 points (a record haul to win the championship in 2016) and win the Champions League. And try and win one or two games in the Fifa Club World Cup.
“That team also won the Telkom Knockout. In the past we have also won the Nedbank Cup. You can only measure with what has happened before.”
But Mosimane argued that the side he recently strengthened by adding striker Jeremy Brockie, winger Aubrey Ngoma and little-known Uruguayan midfielder Gaston
Sirino, had the potential to achieve way more.
“My opinion: the team is playing much, much better,” he said. “I have never seen a team that plays so well in my five years here at this club, even the one that got 71 points. This team is more convincing.
“They are bullies because nobody plays against it. I am yet to see a team that can play against it. I am not saying win, because we lost to AmaZulu, but I am talking about the way they play. I am yet to see a team that plays like this. They start early, score goals in the first half, like two against Ajax, one against Pirates. We will probably have more goals this year.”
Despite convincingly beating Stars at Loftus on Saturday to keep their four-point lead at the summit, Mosimane is still asking for a bit extra from his side.
He left all his new arrivals on the bench, but the game was over as a contest in the first half when Sibusiso Vilakazi broke the deadlock with a beautifully curled ball outside the box, and Khama Billiat struck twice from set pieces to make it 3-0 before the break.
“They will improve,” the coach said. “The quality is good. But it is important for me to respect the team that has put us top of the log.
“There is competition and the new ones will slowly come in. The important thing is that the quality is good. And you have to understand why we took the foot off the pedal in the second half.
“We have been leaking goals and we wanted a clean sheet. A 3-0 looks good because there have been so many goals against us.”
Sundowns next travel to FNB Stadium on Saturday night to face Kaizer Chiefs, a team that completed the league double over them last season and has signed their former striker in Leonardo Castro this month.
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Although he’s been part of the national squad since before the Test against Zimbabwe, De Bruyn has had very little cricket in the last month, playing just one 50over Momentum One-Day Cup game for the Knights against the Titans last week, batting for more than an hour and scoring 37.
Meanwhile, India have all sorts of questions to answer with regards their selection, and again there’ll be plenty of scrutiny about whether they will give a start to right-handed batsman Ajinkya Rahane.
Given their struggles with the bat, it would normally be expected that they would look to solidify their batting, but such has been the nature of Virat Kohli (pictured) and coach Ravi Shastri’s selections so far in this series, that anything really is possible.
Dinesh Karthik has arrived following the return home of Wriddhiman Saha, and with Parthiv Patel struggling behind the stumps in Centurion, there is every chance the tourists could start with their third different wicket-keeper in this series.