Publications
Partners
Christchurch - Proteas fast bowler, Kyle Abbott, says the players will take good pointers from their five-wicket (D/L) win against Sri Lanka in their opening warm-up match at Hagley Oval on Monday.
The Proteas’ lower-order absorbed a high-pressure finish to the rain-affected match, which was a handy outing for both the bowlers and batsmen.
“We came into these warm-up games with a fairly open mind, which was purely to get guys out in the middle,” he said after the match. “As soon as the game got to a tight stage it was amazing how the change-room shifted, even though there was nothing counting on it, we were counting ball-by-ball and run-by-run, which is nice. To get some competitive cricket out of a warm-up match, which sometimes can drift and become boring, it was nice to have a warm-up game where there was a bit of competitiveness.”
The Proteas made use of eight bowlers during the match, with Abbott finishing as the leading wicket-taker with 3/37. The right-arm seamer says the bowling group is satisfied with the performance and kept to their disciplines bowling only two wides which were bouncers.
“It was nice to get a run out today,” Abbott said. “The weather wasn’t great, it wasn’t at all comfortable, especially the spells up against the wind. It was nice to get a few wickets under the belt and hopefully some good preparation going into the next few weeks. It’s important for us, especially the bowlers, to get running; we are still fresh off jetlag so it’s nice to get out and get competitive. It’s a different situation to the nets so building some confidence is always good.”
The Proteas play their next match against New Zealand at Hagley Oval on Wednesday and will adopt a similar approach as on Monday.
“We didn’t strategise too much about this game,” Abbott said. “These warm-up games are here to get the guys running out, batsmen getting time out in the middle and bowlers getting overs under their belts. You can do it in a normal net practice but it is totally different. We are going to keep our standards as high as possible but we didn’t strategise, and looking forward to Wednesday I don’t think we are going to do too much either.”
