Published: Feb 11, 2017, 03:25 PM (IST)
Edited: Feb 11, 2017, 03:25 PM (IST)
South Africa have “unfinished business” in New Zealand, according to One-Day International (ODI) skipper AB de Villiers. Speaking ahead of the team’s departure for New Zealand, de Villiers said South Africa were keen to avenge their defeat by the Black Caps in a dramatic ICC Cricket World Cup 2015 semi-final which was marked by controversy over South Africa’s team selection. The Proteas brought in Vernon Philander for fellow fast bowler Kyle Abbott in that game, a decision made, it was claimed, to ensure 4 players of colour in the starting XI. South Africa will travel as the world’s leading ODI side after completing a 5-0 clean sweep against Sri Lanka at SuperSport Park on Friday. South Africa climb to No. 1 in ICC rankings
In less than a week they will play a one-off T20I in Auckland next Friday, with the first of five ODIs in Hamilton two days later. De Villiers said the No. 1 ranking gave the team confidence but also put pressure on the players. “Being the No. 1 team in the world people expect you to play a certain level of cricket all the time. But with the team ethic we have at the moment I think we’ll thrive under that kind of pressure. It definitely gives you confidence as well. There’s a reason why we’re No. 1 and that’s because we’re playing good cricket. We’ve got a bit of unfinished business there from the 2015 World Cup and we’re very keen to play good cricket against a team that has also been playing well. I think we deserve to be No. 1 and we want to carry on playing the way we have been”, stated the 32-year-old.
De Villiers said he expected a tough challenge. “New Zealand are a street-smart team and they find ways to compete but we have a decent record there. The last few tours we have been there we have played really good cricket”, added de Villiers. Faf du Plessis, who will captain the team in the one-off T20I as well as a three-Test series which follows the ODIs, said overcoming jet lag would be the immediate challenge for the squad. “Normally we go there and we’ve got about a week to ten days to get over jet lag. We rested a lot of players from our (losing) T20 series against Sri Lanka but we still should have won. All our players are back now and we’ve got an opportunity to perform well in a once-off game”, said coach Russell Domingo.
“Schedules are so tight these days but we can’t be seen to be making any excuses. We want to start the tour playing good cricket”, concluded the coach.
Squad:
AB de Villiers (c), Faf du Plessis, Hashim Amla, Farhaan Behardien, Quinton de Kock (wk), JP Duminy, Imran Tahir, David Miller, Chris Morris, Wayne Parnell, Dane Paterson, Andile Phehlukwayo, Dwaine Pretorius, Kagiso Rabada, Tabraiz Shamsi.
