adminPaul Munyuki and Jonathan John
SOUTH Africa cricket captain AB de Villiers wants his side to seal their place in the final of the ODI triangular when they take on Australia at Harare Sports Club today.
The Proteas will seal their place in Saturday’s final with a win today while it will open the window for Zimbabwe to sneak in, with a win over the South Africans on Thursday.
De Villiers said the Zimbabweans deserved their win against the Aussies.
“It was a very interesting game of cricket obviously I am happy for Zimbabwe to get a win like that . . . it’s very rewarding for them and it opens up the tournament a little bit as anything can happen now.
“We have to play a good game of cricket against Australia to make sure of that spot for us in the final. If we have a good game tomorrow (today) then it’s a big possibility but first things first, we have to play a good game and hopefully come away with a win.”
Australia are looking to play better than they did against Zimbabwe on Sunday with coach Darren Lehmann saying his charges will have to gather themselves together, adjust quickly and forget about their defeat to the hosts if they are to make it for the Saturday final.
But they will be missing the services of captain Michael Clarke whose hamstring injury forced him to return home.
“We obviously want to play better than we did yesterday full stop, it’s a quick turnaround to get back and play a quality side like South Africa, we have to play well. The lads are looking forward to tomorrow’s game because obviously everyone was disappointed by the defeat to Zimbabwe but the sun is out today and we getting ready to play tomorrow.
“We can’t control what other teams do, we need to win tomorrow (today). From my point of view we can only worry about tomorrow (today) and everything else stays out of our hands.
“The guys were in pretty good shape this (yesterday) morning and we have moved on quickly because we got to deal with it straight away since it’s done (the defeat to Zimbabwe),” said Lehman.
Online Reporter