South Africa Go Back To Basics

Castle Lager Proteas captain, Hashim Amla, says the 1-0 lead counts for nothing as his team prepares to face Sri Lanka in the second Test at the Sinhalese Sports Club in Colombo on Thursday.

“I don’t think that record is playing on our minds,” Amla said to the media on Wednesday. “What’s more in our minds is playing good cricket over the next five days. Coming into this Test it’s important that we come here with a clean slate and continue to do the same basics here well.”

The Proteas’ management has placed a lot of emphasis on energy-management during the quick turnaround between Tests, particularly for the bowlers, who ran in for almost 180 overs during the five days.

“It was a physically demanding Test,” Amla said. “From a recovery perspective, we have tried to give the guys as much time to get their bodies in the best knick as possible, especially the fast bowlers. There is not much that you can do about the tight turnaround but we have tried to manage it as much as possible.”

The win in Galle has broken the Proteas’ habit of starting series’ off slowly, and gives them an unlikely favourite’s tag heading into the decider.

“I think having the ODI’s before the Tests helped because the guys had acclimatised physically and mentally to what we would be encountering here. Maybe it was the fact that we just went out and did our business without too much fuss about anything else. It’s probably a combination of all those factors.”

Amla has also backed Imran Tahir to come back stronger, after an inconsistent outing in Galle.

“I’m not too concerned about Imran,” Amla said. “He is a quality performer, we know,because he has been successful in the shorter format. Test cricket is a challenging place but I’m sure he will come good here as well. It takes a few good performances here and there to get the confidence up.”