SA on right course, says coach

Published October 10, 2007

LAHORE, Oct 9: Though South African coach Mickey Arthur avoided predicting his team’s victory in the ongoing second Test against Pakistan, he believes they are going in the right direction.

Up 1-0 in the two Test match series, South African are in a sound position in the second one on the second day at Gaddafi Stadium on Tuesday.

“I can’t comment on the result of the Test since there is still a long way to go and anything can happen in any session, but so far we are going in right direction,” Arthur told reporters after the second’s day play.

Arthur was all praise for Mark Boucher and Paul Harris’s eight-wicket stand of 88 runs and termed it had rightly brought his side in a better position.

“It helped us to cross 350 milestone, when 300 was looking enough in the morning,” he said.

Asked if he was expecting, Inzamam-ul-Haq could shatter their game plan, since he is on the crease with Misbah-ul-Haq, Arthur said the 120-Test was a world-class batsman but obviously the South Africans had a plan for him.

“Sending him back into the dressing room early tomorrow, is our prime target, despite the fact he is a quality player and will be hard to get out. We must have our game plan against Inzamam and we know what he can do”, he said.

Inzamam, playing his last Test match, received a welcome from South African team and the crowd as well when he came to bat. He was batting at 10 and in need of as many more runs to break Javed Miandad’s record of highest run getter from Pakistan of 8832 runs.

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