‘Just keep winning’ - Amla

Times Media

TELFORD VICE, Cape Town

DESPITE having once had a backlift that took the garden route before it presented the face of the bat squarely to the ball, Hashim Amla likes to keep things simple.

So, there is a deceptive obviousness to him saying, “The idea is to win as much as we can.”

Of course it is. That’s how sport works. But that’s not quite what Amla meant.

“You’ll have a few days where you don’t perform as well as you would like to and you may lose,” he said. “On other days you may perform well and the other team has a better day. It’s not like you’re going to have a 100% win rate. That’s unrealistic.

“It’s about winning as many as we can and as many series as we can. We want to be on the winning side more than the losing side. But if you lose a game, it’s not the end of the world.”

Amla, who spoke before the second one-day international against New Zealand in Mount Maunganui, will hope SA landed on the right side of that equation when the match ended on Friday morning.

The last game of the series will be played in Hamilton on Monday as SA look to tighten the nuts and bolts on their World Cup planning.

“We’ve almost got the combinations right in preparation for the World Cup,” Amla said. “There’s a bit of tinkering here and there, and I’m sure the captain and coach have a few things in mind. But it’s a healthy position to be in.”

A 3-0 sweep of the series would elevate SA to the No. 1 ranking in ODIs, a position they already occupy in test cricket.

“You want to get to the World Cup in the top three in the world; that gives you some sort of a gauge as to what your chances are,” Amla said.

The last stage of SA’s World Cup preparation is a series of five ODIs at home against West Indies in January. But a pay dispute between the Windies’ players, their board and their players’ association has seemingly cast the tour into jeopardy.

The marketing and communications manager of the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB), Imran Khan, told Times Media on Thursday that “(WICB) president (Dave) Cameron has been in direct contact with (Cricket SA) president (Chris) Nenzani by phone and has assured him, verbally, of what was stated in our release of yesterday (Wednesday)”.

The release said that the WICB would “assure CSA that it will use its best endeavours to ensure a successful tour of SA as scheduled”.