THE games of football that South Africa play to warm up for their training sessions tend to be muddled with mirth and buoyant with boys being boys – which can mean they crackle with competitiveness.
None of which was apparent in the kick-about at the Basin Reserve yesterday ahead of SA’s World Cup match against the United Arab Emirates (UAE) at Wellington Regional Stadium, which starts at 3am tomorrow (SA time). Instead, the mood was heavy with seriousness. Or was it a renewed sense of purpose?
Hashim Amla ran through the light, plastic goal as if it wasn’t there, bowling it over with uncharacteristic aggression, while AB de Villiers barked orders at his teammates. Russell Domingo, meanwhile, was yelled out of the game when he dared put foot to b all.
Why did De Villiers wear a red bib over his training kit when all the other players in his football team wore yellow bibs? Did that mean he was as angry as he was in Auckland on Saturday when his team threw away their wickets for 202 on their way to defeat against Pakistan?
“You can understand AB being upset,” Morne Morkel said yesterday. “It was the perfect situation for us to go and do the stuff we had spoken about, but things didn’t work out and now we need to pick ourselves up.”
Morkel was confident that would happen before the quarterfinals, in which SA are likely to face Sri Lanka in Sydney next Wednesday.
“We always find a solution; that’s the quality of this team. But we need to go out and execute it.
“It’s all good talking about it in the changeroom but now it’s about going out and doing it on the park when there are 16000 people screaming and 100 runs to get.
“At least we are aware of the things we need to improve on. We’ve got answers to the grey areas.
“We need to play well on Thursday and then fly to Sydney with strong minds – take all the negative out of it.”
Going into SA’s fateful game against Pakistan, the Emirates’ Shaiman Anwar, who has made a century and two half centuries in four innings, was the tournament’s top runscorer.
However, none of their bowlers have taken more than five wickets.
The UAE have been dismissed just once – for 102 by India – and have topped 200 in all of their other innings. But they have yet to bowl out their opponents.
SA will hope they do not became that statistic tomorrow.
SA get down to business
None of which was apparent in the kick-about at the Basin Reserve yesterday ahead of SA’s World Cup match against the United Arab Emirates (UAE) at Wellington Regional Stadium, which starts at 3am tomorrow (SA time). Instead, the mood was heavy with seriousness. Or was it a renewed sense of purpose?
Hashim Amla ran through the light, plastic goal as if it wasn’t there, bowling it over with uncharacteristic aggression, while AB de Villiers barked orders at his teammates. Russell Domingo, meanwhile, was yelled out of the game when he dared put foot to b all.
Why did De Villiers wear a red bib over his training kit when all the other players in his football team wore yellow bibs? Did that mean he was as angry as he was in Auckland on Saturday when his team threw away their wickets for 202 on their way to defeat against Pakistan?
“You can understand AB being upset,” Morne Morkel said yesterday. “It was the perfect situation for us to go and do the stuff we had spoken about, but things didn’t work out and now we need to pick ourselves up.”
Morkel was confident that would happen before the quarterfinals, in which SA are likely to face Sri Lanka in Sydney next Wednesday.
“We always find a solution; that’s the quality of this team. But we need to go out and execute it.
“It’s all good talking about it in the changeroom but now it’s about going out and doing it on the park when there are 16000 people screaming and 100 runs to get.
“At least we are aware of the things we need to improve on. We’ve got answers to the grey areas.
“We need to play well on Thursday and then fly to Sydney with strong minds – take all the negative out of it.”
Going into SA’s fateful game against Pakistan, the Emirates’ Shaiman Anwar, who has made a century and two half centuries in four innings, was the tournament’s top runscorer.
However, none of their bowlers have taken more than five wickets.
The UAE have been dismissed just once – for 102 by India – and have topped 200 in all of their other innings. But they have yet to bowl out their opponents.
SA will hope they do not became that statistic tomorrow.
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