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DUBAI. — Star batsman AB de Villiers expressed his confidence that South Africa can rectify the problems which led to their defeat against Pakistan in the first Test cricket last week. Speaking ahead of the second Test starting here tomorrow, the 29-year-old admitted South Africa were disappointed to lose by seven wickets in Abu Dhabi.
“The mood is good, we’ve moved on from the disappointing performance, obviously we were hurt quite a bit after the Test, we haven’t played cricket like that in a long time and we were very, very disappointed,” de Villiers said after team practice on Monday.
“We’re finding ways to fix it and that’s the most important thing. We’ve looked at a few areas where we went wrong and we’re going to try and get it right,” said de Villiers.
“It’s a must-win game for us and we’re going in there with that attitude to win that game, we’re still the number one team in the world and we are going to play like it.”
South Africa slumped to 249 and 232 against a spin-cum pace Pakistan attack and failed to stop their rivals from putting up a mammoth 442 for a comfortable win.
To add to South Africa’s batting problems, first Test centurion Hashim Amla may not be available for the second Test as the reliable batsman returned home for the birth of his second child.
Left-hander Dean Elgar is likely to replace Amla.
Dale Steyn also suffered a back problem, but De Villiers believes the paceman will recover.
“He did tweak something in the fielding practice yesterday, but we think it’s not too serious, so we are just taking a good precaution and making sure he will be ready for the second Test,” he said.
De Villiers praised Pakistan’s bowling, led by off-spinner Saeed Ajmal who finished with 4-74 in the second innings.
“I thought they bowled quite well with clever plans. But then again few soft dismissals including myself, you never know what could have happened,” said De Villiers, referring to his bizarre run out in the first innings.
De Villiers played a defensive shot and was out of his crease after the slip fielder threw to wicket-keeper Adnan Akmal who ran the batsman out.
He hit a fighting 90 in the second knock.
“I think we didn’t do the basics well, didn’t adapt quickly to the conditions, few highlights were probably Hashim’s innings and a couple of partnerships, and that was it, other than that it was quite a disappointing performance.”
South Africa may also look at their spin option, replacing leg-spinner Imran Tahir for left-arm spinner Robin Peterson who finished wicket-less in the first Test.
Meanwhile, Pakistan coach Dav Whatmore drew on bitter personal experience to warn his players that world No. 1 Test cricket team South Africa can bounce back in the second Test starting in Dubai tomorrow.
Pakistan won the first test in Abu Dhabi by seven wickets last Thursday, but Whatmore recalled a personal experience of South Africa’s resilience when he was the coach of Sri Lanka in 2000/2001.
“This South African unit is quite resilient,” said 59-year-old Whatmore on Sunday.
“I’ve had first hand experience in Sri Lanka where they lost by an innings in Galle and came back to win in Kandy,” said Whatmore of the series in Sri Lanka.
“I think there was a drawn game in Colombo so it was 1-1 in the series, so you leave them off at your peril.”
South Africa’s unbeaten series run away from home since losing to Sri Lanka in 2006 is also under threat and Whatmore, born in Sri Lanka but who emigrated with his family aged eight, said Pakistan will do their best to win.
“Well 1-0 is just as good as I think because a hard fought draw is also very important for any team, having been 1-0 up in the series, but we enter the game to win,” said Whatmore, whose team lost to Zimbabwe in the second Test in a 1-1 drawn series last month. Pakistan have an incentive of jumping to fourth from sixth in the Test rankings if they win or square the series.
Whatmore, who played seven tests and one limited overs international for Australia, refused to agree that Pakistan’s win was an upset.
“I wasn’t surprised we did well, people leading up to this series in Pakistan were alluding to the fact that we lost against Zimbabwe and here you are going to play the No. 1 team in the world, no chance.
“But that was never the case, in my mind I knew that we can be competitive.” Whatmore, who coached Sri Lanka to the 1996 World Cup title, said different conditions and of some personnel, especially in the top order, paid off.
“I’ve always said we’re better prepared against this opposition than we were the last time we played them in South Africa notwithstanding their No. 1 ranking,” said Whatmore of Pakistan’s 3-0 humiliation earlier this year.
“That conditions are different that’s pretty obvious and we’ve had a slight change of personnel in the eleven I think it’s a combination of those reasons that gave us a good competitive effort over four days,” said Whatmore.
Pakistan played debutant opener Shan Masood who put on 135 runs for the opening stand in Abu Dhabi.
Masood, who replaced experienced but out of form Mohammad Hafeez, hit 75 in the first innings to help Pakistan gain a big 193-run lead.
South Africa then slumped to 232 in their second innings which gave Pakistan a 40-run target to win.
South African coach Russell Domingo blamed poor batting in the first innings, folded at 249.
“That’s why we lost the Test, we couldn’t stretch our first innings because if you look at the stats in Dubai and Abu Dhabi the first innings sets the game, so a lot of questions can be asked of the bowlers but it was ultimately the batters who let us down,” said Domingo, who took over from Gary Kirsten in June this year.
Domingo hoped his team would execute the match strategy better.
“Look, the South African side play a certain way over a period of time and we know we were outplayed and we know we need to improve, the plans won’t change massively but we need to execute them a lot better,” said the coach. — AFP.
Online Reporter