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Proteas need fighting spirit

Altus Momberg

Kolkata – The Proteas will have to show the fighting spirit of their backs against the wall performance against England at Lord’s if they aim to salvage the second Test here at Eden Gardens on Wednesday and Thursday.

South Africa continue their innings at 6/0 on Wednesday morning, still 341 runs behind India’s first innings total.

If South Africa want to get a draw, they will have to bat for the better part of the next two days.

The Proteas succeeded in doing that at Lord’s in 2008. In that Test they also had to fight back after a poor batting performance in the first innings.

But Graeme Smith, Hashim Amla and Neil McKenzie all scored centuries to ensure that the Proteas lost only three wickets in 167 overs.

Proteas batting consultant Kepler Wessels admitted that it would be tough.

“It’s going to be very difficult, but we will try our best. The wicket is not too bad,” he said.

He added that the Proteas would have been in a better position had their fielding not been so poor.

“You have to use your chances against top players at this level. If you don’t do it, you will find yourself in a problematic situation like this,” Wessels said of the dropped catches.

What the South Africans don’t want to do in the coming two days is to capitulate in  the manner that they did against England in Durban at the end of last year.

Smith and Co then had to survive for approximately four-and-a-half sessions, but they fell apart quickly to lose the Test by an innings.

England showed twice in their recent series against South Africa – in Centurion and Cape Town – how to rescue a Test.

India’s batsmen showed that the wicket is still batting well when they declared on 643/6. It is an Indian record against South Africa.

“There will obviously be more pressure on our batsmen because they will have to fight hard,” said Wessels.

VVS Laxman, who posted an unbeaten 143, believes the wicket will offer his team’s bowlers a lot of assistance.

“It has definitely started deteriorating and will assist the spinners. I think our spinners will achieve more success than the South Africans,” said Laxman.

The Proteas will also have to guard against being too cautious.

If they do no more than fight for survival and don’t score runs, they will allow India to pressure the batsmen with attacking field positions.

The Indian batsmen showed that the pressure on them is reduced when the fielding side starts worrying about the run-rate.

“We won’t alter our batting strategy. The guys will have to build partnerships and make sure that they dig in,” said Wessels.

He also blamed the players’ impatient batting for the dramatic collapse in the first innings.

“It was predictable that Hashim (Amla) would struggle to concentrate for so long again after his incredible innings in Nagpur, while Alviro (Petersen) probably lost concentration after achieving such a milestone,” said Wessels.

“But all the batsmen were too loose and will have to improve.”
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