‘Suddenly, we wanted to win it’

Times Media

TELFORD VICE, Christchurch

MOST of Monday’s World Cup warm-up match between SA and Sri Lanka in Christchurch was less about the contest and more about concentrating on making sure things were as they should be for the tournament proper.

And then, rudely, SA had a game on their hands when they lost five wickets for 51 runs. That was when Kyle Abbott’s interest was snagged.

“We go into warm-up games with an open mind; just trying to get guys out in the middle,” Abbott said. “But it was amazing - as soon as the game got tight, you could feel the changeroom shift.

“To get some competitive cricket out of a warm-up game which can drift and become quite boring was a bonus.

“The guys were getting behind every run. Suddenly, we wanted to win it as much as any other game.”

SA did, by five wickets with three balls to spare. But their bigger victory was over temperatures that dropped to 12 degrees, and that was besides the whipping wind and rain that interrupted play three times.

“You find yourself trying to run in too hard in the wind because you feel like you are not getting to the crease, which is the worst thing you can do,” Abbott said.

“You need to understand that you are not going to bowl 130 kilometres an hour bowling into the wind - it is going to slow you down.”

Abbott took two wickets in his haul of 3/37 in the last of his 6.4 overs, which did no harm to his hopes of landing a permanent job as SA’s preferred death bowler.

“I like that situation,” he said. “I play with fire because I have put myself out there to bowl those overs. I put myself under pressure but I want those overs. I am going to concede runs but I can also look a like hero.”