da esoccer bet： Graeme Smith and Shaun Pollock spoke to the media after the South African triumph
Dileep Premachandran in Centurion03-Dec-2006
‘I needed to get a start, and Igot that today’ © Getty Images
Graeme Smith was more than happy after this nine-wicket thumping ofIndia at SuperSport Park. Not only did his side wrap up the series 4-0,but he managed to put his personal travails behind him with a punishing85-ball 79. Most of the credit though went to the bowling attack led byShaun Pollock, who got Man-of-the-Series honours after picking up 10wickets at 8.3 and walloping 86 runs in even time.”Our bowlers were fantastic,” said Smith after the game. “Throughout theseries, they have been magnificent. The fielding backed it up. I thoughtit was a pretty good wicket. We just bowled well, and applied thepressure. We had game-plans for each batter, and we gave them nothing.Maybe they felt the pressure of the last three games on their shoulders.”His opening partnership with Loots Bosman never ignited, but paired withAB de Villiers at Centurion, it was a different story, with 173 runsclattered from 172 balls. “AB has shots all around the wicket, and he’sgained a lot of experience in one-day cricket,” said Smith. “He was superbin the field, and we pushed him higher up the order and he performed. Wegelled well with each other. Our games match each other.”After one run in three previous one-day outings, Smith had been under apretty dark cloud himself, and he admitted as much. “Obviously there was alot of pressure, there was a lot of stress. I needed to get a start, and Igot that today. And I’m still in the top three in the one-day rankings, so thatmeans I can play.”Newspaper reports had been doing the rounds suggesting that Smith’s placein the side was in jeopardy, and after this riposte, he took aim at themedia. “A lot of it [the talk] comes from you guys,” he said, with arueful smile. “The support staff, the convenor [of the selection panel],the [Cricket South Africa] CEO and my team-mates have all been behind me.It was nice to come through, and I want to thank all my team-mates.”Having succumbed to Zaheer Khan four times in succession, including Friday’sPro20 game, he managed to avoid him in the initial stages, with AB deVilliers hogging the strike from Zaheer’s end. By the end, Smith hadredressed the balance a little, clouting Zaheer for a six over long-on asthe game entered its climactic stages.”He’s bowled very well and you’ve got to give credit to him,” said Smith.”He said he’s worked hard on his bowling and it’s paid off for him. Whenhe came back today, we were in a commanding position. We wanted to finishit the way we wanted to.”As for Pollock, who bowled 48 dot-balls in a stupendously accurate spell,he claimed that there was no big secret behind his renaissance as abowler. “I try and keep it as simple as possible,” he said. “Sometimes youget the edges and the wickets, and sometimes Makhaya [Ntini] is going toget the wickets. We work well as partnership. It’s not about the figures,but how it all ends up.”He slammed a few big shots of his own to accelerate South Africa’s surgeto victory, and in the process denied de Villiers the chance of a maidenone-day century. Pollock merely laughed when asked if that was theintention. “AB played superbly and at the end of the day, it was as goodas a hundred,” he said. “From his perspective, he needed a big score whichhe got. It was good to see him go all the way through.”He wouldn’t commit himself when asked whether India had the bowling topick up 20 South African wickets in the Test matches. “We’ll have to waitand see,” he said. “They have a lot of experience. [Anil] Kumble has gotloads and loads of wickets, and Harbhajan [Singh] has done a good job. Itdepends on who they pick. We hope not [bowl us out twice]. Our aim will beto score a lot of runs and bowl them out twice.”Pollock heads into that Test series with 395 Test wickets to his name, andSmith said that the team would take great heart from the emphatic natureof their one-day triumph. “Our confidence is high and we are going to carrythat confidence into the Test matches,” he said. And when asked whetherthe inclusion of VVS Laxman and Sourav Ganguly would firm up an alarmingbrittle batting line-up, he chose to focus on the tension that is said toprevail in the Indian dressing room. “How the experienced guys fit intothe environment of the team is going to be interesting to see,” he said,poker-faced. For the moment, he’s the man holding all the aces.