"We will not be scared of conditions and we will not be scared of what's dished up at us. We feel we've got enough skill in our team to be able to handle all conditions." If you close your eyes when you hear those Gary Kirsten sentences you can almost picture him saying them to a national team.
On Monday afternoon in Dunedin those words were said in relation to South Africa. New Zealand is hardly as different to them as it would have been to India but Kirsten's meticulous attention to adjustment will ensure that South Africa are prepared for anything. Their goal, although Kirsten won't explicitly say it, is to whitewash New Zealand to become the world's top ranked Test team and the only way to do that is to go in prepared.
Cricketers, especially South African cricketers, are used to playing in summer. Dunedin in March is closer to a Johannesburg winter. "I remember playing my last Test match here [in New Zealand] and it was 9 degrees on the last day. South Africa will spend two days training in the chill to get used to the weather and keenly observing preparations for the pitch, which Kirsten saw for the first time in the middle of his press engagement. Although New Zealand seemed headed in the direction of greener pitches, the surface at the University Oval is a smooth brown and talk of slowing it down as much as possible is rife. It's a tactic that would leave New Zealand's batsmen less vulnerable to South Africa's fiery fast-bowlers but would also somewhat negate their own four-pronged pace attack.
Whatever the colour of the strip, Kirsten said South Africa will concentrate on the "processes," a new favourite buzzword in the team. The difference for South Africa is that they are closer than the majority of other teams and could be named the top-ranked Test side by the end of the month.
Instead of focus on the three wins they will need to get there, something which Kirsten and his team will be acutely aware of, he said they will ignore the short-term results. Instead, they will target victory, but in an indirect fashion, according to Kirsten. "We know that if we do certain things right through a Test match, we will win more games than we lose."
We've played better as the games have gone along.
(espn)
