Scoring 726 runs in the One-Day Cup makes this probably the best season of my one-day career in South Africa.

It’s obviously a great achievement by the Lions to win the One-Day Cup and I’m very happy with the team’s performance as well as my own. We as a team had a game plan and we stuck to it, even under pressure at times.

The Cobras had the best team in the competition, and they played really well to earn themselves a home final, but once you get to finals, the past means absolutely nothing, and it’s about arriving and playing your best cricket on the day.

They lost a few knockout games this year and last year, and it gave us confidence that we can beat them in their own backyard, because sometimes when that happens you can have added pressure and some baggage going into a crucial game.

To explore that we knew we had to get into the contest and start well, and once we had them under pressure everything just fell into place. Pressure can make you start doubting yourself, and in a final it’s so much more.

We just made sure we did the basics well and it worked for us in the end.

I think we won the game with early wickets as they struggled on 43-3. We were extremely surprised that they left out Stiaan van Zyl for the final. His record this years has been good and with Richard Levi coming in and Wayne Parnell moving down the order it reshuffled their whole batting line-up.

We regroup on Wednesday to start preparing for the Sunfoil Series, which continues on Thursday, and I think we can and should use this success in the One-Day Cup as motivation to do well in the Sunfoil Series.

As for the Proteas taking on Australia, I think they are likely to play the team who will do duty in the World T20 or close to it. Dale Steyn should get a run in the team and it would be nice for him to play in all three games he is the sort of bowler who needs match practice and with that, he gets better and bette.

South Africa have to try and win the series which will ensure they go into the Word Cup with a lot of confidence.

Alviro Petersen is a former Proteas cricketer and the third South African to score a century on Test debut. He has several records, including:

• The highest partnership by a South African pair (501) with Ashwell Prince;
• Four consecutive list A centuries (SA record and joint world record);
• Scored a century in both innings of a first-class game three times;
• Most centuries in a South African first-class season (6);
• The 2010 Mutual and Federal SA Cricketer of the Year;
• In 2011 became only the sixth player in Glamorgan history to score more that 2000 runs in a county season;
• Founder of the Alviro Petersen Foundation and Alviro Petersen Cricket School: www.alviropetersen.com