Farhaan Behardien says the Proteas need to be a little smarter in their approach to the Newlands T20I on their hunt for a series win.
The Proteas had two contrasting games in Gauteng: losing significantly at the Wanderers by 28 runs and then turned things around at Centurion to win by six wickets.
Heinrich Klaasen (69 off 30 balls) and JP Duminy (64 off 40 balls) were both illustrations of the changes in the Proteas’ game plan.
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Behardien revealed the little tweaks the Proteas have to make for the Newlands conditions, to win the T20I series.
‘In the Highveld you can hit the ball and it sails for six. I think we have to be slightly smarter here,’ said Behardien.
‘In the coast, the ball doesn’t travel as far. We need to maybe have a slightly flatter trajectory when hitting the spinners or the seamers. Maybe twos will be a little more important. The field looks quite big from the middle strip.
‘The Newlands pitch has been a good pitch over the last couple of seasons, so I don’t think it will change too much. Maybe one or two mis-hits won’t go for six, they will be caught on the boundary.
‘The plans will still generally stay the same like I said, Newlands is not too far off a Highveld wicket at the moment.’
After being dominated in the ODI series 5-1, the Proteas’ aim will be to win the overall tour by adding a 2-1 T20I win to their 2-1 Test-series victory.
‘Tomorrow is a big game, it being 1-1. The Cape Town faithful will hopefully come out and support us on Saturday night,’ Behardien added.
‘It’s another chance to play against a top side and hopefully, it is some good experience going forward, leading into Sri Lanka, to next summer and leading into the World Cup. It’s a final, a chance to win a series against a very strong side.
‘Playing in the game itself is an experience on its own. We took some lessons from Joburg and applied it at Centurion – as long as we keep learning and improving. We are playing against a strong outfit but we have our plans.
‘We took the day off yesterday and had a very good training session today and we will be fighting tooth-and-nail to win tomorrow.’
The match starts at 18:00 on Saturday.
Photo: Samuel Shivambu/BackpagePix
