Proteas wary of tough Pakistan challenge

South Africa will be venturing into the unknown and are vary of the fighting spirit of Pakistan when they take on the ‘hosts’ in two back-to-back Twenty20 matches less than 48 hours after arriving in Abu Dhabi on Sunday.

“They are a dangerous team to play. They have a lot of talented players, so we’re going to have to play our best cricket to do well on this tour,” said South African batsman Graeme Smith who will be playing as an opener in the two Twenty20 matches on Tuesday and Wednesday at the Zayed Cricket Stadium in Abu Dhabi.

“Playing Pakistan is always a great challenge and they knocked us out in two major Twenty20 matches,” said captain Johan Botha of Pakistan’s wins over South Africa in the Twenty20 World Cup in 2009 and 2010.

South Africa are excited to play here for the first time despite having some fitness concerns of their key players.

“It’s our first test in the subcontinent for the summer. All of us are pretty excited. We have a good team and very excited to be out here,” said Botha at the launch of the series in Abu Dhabi on Monday.

All-rounder Jacques Kallis and fast bowlers Morne Morkel and Dale Steyn were still recovering from various injuries and may not be able to play the first Twenty 20.

“You always miss quality players and surely Pakistan will miss the two (suspended) bowlers, but we too have injury problems in the team and when such things happen other players step in,” said Botha referring to the absence of Mohammad Amer and Mohammad Asif from the Pakistan team. He hinted they could play an additional spinner after having a look at the conditions.

South African coach Corrie Van Zyl said the tour of Zimbabwe had helped them prepare for this tour. “We knew exactly that we were going to similar subcontinent conditions and play against spin bowlers. The Zimbabwe team had a few good spin bowlers as well. So overall it’s been a good preparation for us, playing against that sort of attack and being exposed to it was helpful,” he said.

“We’ve done all the hard work and players got time in the middle, so we can’t really ask for more than that going into a tour where we don’t have much time to prepare before the first game,” said Smith on their series against Zimbabwe where they won the two T20s and all three ODIs.

“We have four games in six days so it’s going to be quite heavy. Our ability to have an open mind and adapt on our feet is going to be the challenge on this tour, especially early on this week,” said Smith who hoped the series would be played in the right spirit and cricket would make headlines for performances on the pitch.

“So let’s hope everything is fine. We get as competitive as possible and really push through to win as many games as possible in this tour,” he said since the World Cup was not far away.

“It’s a crucial stage in our development of the team before the World Cup. We are excited to be in the UAE. This gives us a wonderful opportunity to experience a new country and play cricket in that country. Hope the fans will come out and support us,” added Smith.

On his evolving role as elder statesman in the side with his decision to hand over the Twenty20 captaincy to Botha, Smith said: “It’s really been only one weekend that I haven’t been involved in captaincy. I have been supporting Botha as much as I can and really helping him to be successful and stand on his own feet. I’m sure he will do a great job in the first two games and in this tour.”

He is focussed on leading his side to World Cup glory. “From a one-day perspective, the next six months is really going to be important for myself and the team. Obviously we would love to be successful. I’m taking it at one step a moment at the moment and really enjoying my cricket and have made some decisions for myself and hope to benefit my career and help South Africa,” said Smith.

Even the scrapping of his team Rajasthan Royals from the IPL is furthest from his mind. “I’m trying as a player not to really get caught up with that at the moment. My focus is on South African cricket at the moment. It will be wonderful to be part of the IPL. For the moment my mind is focussed on being successful here and then we have India in South Africa and then the World Cup,” he said.

The two sides play the first two one-day matches in Abu Dhabi before the last three limited-over matches in Dubai.

Dubai will also stage the first Test, while the second will be played in Abu Dhabi.

South Africa Twenty20 squad (from): Johan Botha (captain), Loots Bosman, AB de Villiers, Jean-Paul Duminy, Colin Ingram, Jacques Kallis, David Miller, Graeme Smith, Albie Morkel, Morne Morkel, Wayne Parnell, Robin Peterson, Dale Steyn, Rusty Theron, Lonwabo Tsotsobe

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