Saturday, April 07, 2007

SA prepared for Tigers challenge

World Cup Super 8, Guyana: Bangladesh v South Africa
Match starts 1430 BST Saturday

Andrew Hall takes a wicket
South Africa look strong candidates for a semi-final place

South Africa could move a step closer to a place in the World Cup semi-finals when they meet Bangladesh on Saturday.

They have beaten Sri Lanka and Ireland in their previous Super 8 games in Guyana while Bangladesh have lost their two matches by substantial margins.

Bangladesh could also be distracted by Dav Whatmore's interest in becoming India's next coach.

But South Africa had to work hard to overcome Ireland in their last match and are taking nothing for granted.

"This is a team which beat India and New Zealand, two of the top teams in the world," said captain Graeme Smith.

"If you give them a whiff of a chance, they will capitalise on it."

We're looking forward to stepping it up and getting to the meat of the World Cup
Graeme Smith

South Africa know that two wins from their four remaining games might be enough to see them through.

But they want to keep up the momentum gained since they were beaten by Australia during the group stage.

They could bring in fast bowler Andre Nel to freshen up the bowling attack and may also juggle the batting positions to give some of the lower-order players a chance in the middle.

"We feel as though we've still got a lot in the tank and we can still raise our levels a lot," said Smith.

"This is the time when you need to be peaking. The Guyana period has been pretty low key and we're looking forward to stepping it up and getting to the meat of the World Cup."

Bangladesh captain Habibul Bashar
Habibul Bashar needs a score to silence his critics

Bangladesh captain Habibul Bashar, whose performances have been strongly criticised at home, insisted that Whatmore's interest in the India job was not a problem.

"He has been working very hard with us and has given no indication that he's not enjoying himself," said Bashar.

"I don't want to talk too much about his thoughts. It's purely for him to decide. But our performance shows what kind of hard work he has put in."

Despite reaching the Super 8s thanks to a stunning win over India, the players are under pressure from the Bangladesh public over the manner of their last two defeats.

"I don't think the last two games have been our best cricket. We can still play better," added Bashar, who has so far managed just 105 runs with one half-century in the tournament.

"There's more expectation at the moment that has put us under a bit more pressure. We are expected to be doing better."

A decision on how to combat the South African seam attack will determine whether Javed Omar keeps his place at the top of the order, or whether Shahriar Nafees is recalled.

Bangladesh have lost all seven previous one-day matches against South Africa, but will hope to do considerably better than when they last met at the 2004 ICC Champions Trophy.

On that occasion, they were bowled out for just 93 and the Proteas knocked off the runs in 17.5 overs.


Bangladesh (from): Habibul Bashar (capt), Shahriar Nafees, Tamim Iqbal, Aftab Ahmed, Saqibul Hasan, Mohammad Ashraful, Mushfiqur Rahim, Mohammad Rafique, Abdur Razzak, Mashrafe Mortaza, Shahadat Hossain, Syed Rasel, Rajin Saleh, Javed Omar.

South Africa (from): G Smith (capt), J Kallis, L Bosman, M Boucher, AB de Villiers, H Gibbs, A Hall, J Kemp, C Langeveldt, A Nel, M Ntini, R Peterson, S Pollock, A Prince, R Telemachus.

Umpires: M Benson (Eng), B Doctrove (WI)

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