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Cape Town - The Proteas are aiming for an improved performance in the second One-Day International (ODI) against New Zealand at the Bay Oval in Tauranga on Friday.
All-rounder, JP Duminy, says that, although the Proteas cruised to a comfortable six-wicket victory in the opening match, there are still areas to improve on in what could be the series-decider on Friday.
“It was a really good bowling performance,” Duminy said on Wednesday. “If we are really hard on ourselves in any way, we could be better towards the backend, but that is a work in progress. We haven’t played together in five weeks so I guess it’s about finding out the areas where we can improve and that is probably the one area.
“The batting went according to plan but in an ideal world you probably want to finish the match with only two or three wickets down. I’m obviously quite happy with the partnership that AB (de Villiers) and I put together. If we had lost another wicket the game would have been in the balance.”
A win will hand the Proteas a series victory, but they will first have to counter a wounded BLACK CAPS side, that remains dangerous on their home turf. Duminy, who was one of the top-scorers in Tuesday’s victory, described the home team as “street-smart” in their own conditions, and commended the aggressive field placements and intent from their captain, Brendon McCullum.
“I’m very happy,” he said of his own performance. “It wasn’t the perfect innings but it was what was required. Scoring wasn’t very easy in the beginning, especially picking up singles, because of the way New Zealand go about their business in the field. The way we finished it off was probably the ideal way.
“It’s a tick in their box, the way they go about their business in terms of their aggressive nature in the field,” Duminy admitted. “As a batter you always have that intimidated feeling if fielders are in your face and I think that is what he (McCullum) is trying to employ there.
“No matter what the situation of the game is, they are always trying to squeeze the batting side. You feel that sort of pressure when you are out in the middle, and you have to come up with ways to counter that.”
