Cricket
SA to raise intensity against the Black Caps─── 16:31 Tue, 10 Feb 2015
The Proteas want to raise their intensity when they face New Zealand tomorrow in their second warm-up match ahead of the ICC Cricket World Cup which starts this weekend.
Yesterday South Africa beat Sri Lanka by 5 wickets in a rain affected match in Christchurch.
The men in green-and-gold conceded that there was no real strategy for that match, but it is something which is set to change for their clash against the Black Caps.
Speaking out of Christchurch this morning, batsman Faf du Plessis said the side are in a good space at the moment and they are ready.
He added that teams need to be mentally fresh going into a World Cup.
“We have played quite a lot of cricket in the last month or so we are ready to play now,” said Du Plessis.
“It’s difficult to get yourself motivated with these warm-up games as you would do in a normal one-day international. The nice thing is that we haven’t really tried to be intense about it because we do understand that it’s quite a long tournament, mentally you need to be fresh throughout the competition," he added.
“Yesterday was quite low-key, it was like a practice session for us but to get over the line and to do all the things we did yesterday was good practice,”
“With New Zealand tomorrow we will play with a little bit more intensity because it is getting closer to that first match but we will still gradually build it up.” he concluded.
Tomorrow’s match at the Hagley Oval gets underway at midnight, while on Sunday they take on neighbours, Zimbabwe at the Seddon Park in Hamilton in their first Group B match.
Morgan Piek / OFM News
Du Plessis says the side need to be mentally fresh going into a World Cup.:
