Two days off. Then India planning starts

Times Media

TELFORD VICE, Hamilton

TWO days off. That is SA’s reward for clearing their first World Cup hurdle. Then they will begin preparing for their toughest challenge of the group stage.

“Not at all,” SA captain AB de Villiers said when he was asked if he had started thinking about his team’s next match, against India in Melbourne this Sunday.

“My wife is coming over; all our wives are coming over, and I’m going to try and get away from the game. I’ll start thinking about India on Wednesday.”

Behind De Villiers and his men lay an unusually competitive game against Zimbabwe in Hamilton on Sunday. SA won by 62 runs, but the Zimbabweans were in the game for longer than SA would have wanted.

An important part of the reason for that happening, De Villiers said, was the pitch.

“It was difficult to bat on in the first 15 to 20 overs, but it played exceptionally well in the second innings,” he said. “You don’t often see guys hit through the line like that to Morne (Morkel), Vernon (Philander) and Dale (Steyn).”

SA, who were put in to bat, slumped to 83/4 in the 21st over before recovering to a total of 339/4 thanks to a World Cup-record stand of 256 for the unbroken fifth wicket between David Miller and JP Duminy, who both scored centuries.

Zimbabwe were ahead of SA in runs terms until the end of the 46th over of their innings, but they were dismissed for 277 in the 49th.

“I think you will see all the teams bowling first here (if they win the toss),” De Villiers. “It was slow and sticky. It was a very Zimbabwe-like wicket and they were very clever with how they bowled on it.”

De Villiers had more heartening words for a Zimbabwe team who have bounced back impressively from losing all three tests and five one-day internationals they played in Bangladesh in November and December.

“These okes can play some cricket,” De Villiers said. “They beat Australia not long ago (in an ODI in Harare in August) and I will not be surprised if they upset a few teams in this World Cup.”

None of which eased Elton Chigumbura’s mood. “We had the game; we lost it in the last five overs,” the Zimbabwean captain said.

In some ways, the match turned in the 47th over of SA’s innings, when Miller hit medium pacer Solomon Mire for 30 runs.

“Our gameplan worked for 46 overs, but in the 47th it didn’t work,” Chigumbura said.