Adapt and we’ll be fine, says KG
SECOND ODI: BASICS, GAME PLANS VITAL FOR MOMENTUM
Ken Borland
When playing cricket in Sri Lanka, so much of your success is dependent on how well you adapt to the various conditions on offer and South African strike bowler Kagiso Rabada warned yesterday that winning the second one-day international in Dambulla today is going to require good basics and game plans from the Proteas.
In the first ODI, on a pitch with more pace and bounce than they have seen all tour, and even some movement, Rabada led the way by blowing away the Sri Lankan top-order to set up a five-wicket win. The second ODI will be played at the same venue, but he fully expects conditions to be tougher for the visitors.
“It was important to get the series off to a good start. Now we’re on the front foot we’ll look to carry on the momentum, try and make it 2-0 going to Kandy, which would be a huge advantage. I thought it was a good pitch for the first game, more of what you expect in one-day cricket after the Test pitches were completely different. They were sandpits.
“But I don’t think there’ll be that much assistance tomorrow, so we’ll need to continue our game plans and it’s all about adapting, you need to bring different skills and lengths.
“You’re not going to get wickets the same way as you do in South Africa, you need to get wickets in different ways and our game plans are why we came out on top. You have to try and nail the basics as well,” Rabada told The Citizen yesterday.
Doing the basics well applies just as much to the batsmen, with their chase of a modest target of 194 nearly being derailed by spinner Akila Dhananjaya. Hashim Amla has the experience to know he must just keep doing what he has always done with great success on the sub-continent as he tries to regain form, while Aiden Markram is likely to be given another game in which to figure out a way to score runs in the foreign conditions.
South Africa will take great heart, however, from the way JP Duminy batted in taking the side to victory in the first ODI, given how crucial he is to the batting line-up, with not much to come below him.