http://www.senore.com/Cricket/JH-Kallis-c1692 confident in South Africa’s preparation – Cricket News Update
Speaking out to counter criticism regarding the limited amount of time South Africa have spent on preparing for their upcoming Test series against http://www.senore.com/Cricket/England-c749, all-rounder Jacques Kallis claimed his team were “in a great space” as they had had adequate time
to prepare, and would have preferred it if the matches had started sooner.
“The guys feel that if the Test match started a couple of days ago it would have been perfect,” Kallis said. “As far as preparation is concerned the guys have got exactly what they wanted out of it. Today (Tuesday) and tomorrow (Wednesday) are just top-up
days.”
The amount of practice the Proteas have managed to fit in prior to the commencement of the series has been called into question owing to the crucial nature of the contest. The extended-overs series offers South Africa the opportunity to claim the top spot
on the ICC’s Test team rankings, currently occupied by England, but many have dubbed the visitors “underdone”.
Not only has the team played a minimum of two warm-up matches, against http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Pakistan-c755, Sri
Lanka, http://www.senore.com/Cricket/West-Indies-c760, while the Proteas last played at the international level in March this year.
Head coach http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Gary-Kirsten-c58527 also hit out at suggestions that his side were underdone, pointing out that they had undergone rigorous training (including a camp in Switzerland), almost to the point where he felt the team had been “over-cooked”.
The first Test of the 3-match series kicks off on July 19 at the Kennington Oval in London. http://www.senore.com/Cricket/South-Africa-c757 lost all of the previous three Tests they played at the Oval, but Kallis (who will be looking to improve his numbers in England where he averages 29.30,
in comparison to his overall Test average of 56.78) insisted that the team would be focusing on the positives, going on to add that the competition between two equally strong bowling attacks would be interesting to watch.
“It's going to be an interesting battle to see who comes out on top. Both sides have got good batters as well. It's going to be a fantastic series,” he said.
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