DHAKA, March 24: Graeme Smith and Daniel Vettori, the rival captains in the third quarter-final of the World Cup, expressed contrasting views as South Africa and New Zealand went through the final practice session at the Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium here on Thursday.Smith spoke confidently of South Africa’s prospects on Friday while respecting New Zealand as stubborn opponents. Vettori appeared to be rather sceptical about his team’s chances, a natural reaction to what the Black Caps had experienced in Bangladesh after the hosts outplayed them in a limited-overs series late last year.
Smith sounded cocky at the pre-match conference and revealed South Africa have difficult selection decisions to make in their bid to win here and move to the semi-finals of the tournament.
“The selection is always tough and as the guys have all been performing it’s getting much more difficult to pick the right side. It is an ideal challenge to have all players doing well. We have got a good squad of players [at our disposal] and as the captain, it is an ideal situation we wanted coming into the World Cup,” he stated. “And it’s great all are contributing in the success of our team.”
The skipper was excited over the performance of the Pakistan-born leg-spinner Imran Tahir and admitted his inclusion has bolstered South Africa further since he brings another dimension to the their bowling.
“Tahir has been a real asset for us. The best thing about our three spinners [Robin Peterson and Johan Botha are others] is that they are very different and they’ve all performed different roles at different times.
“But Tahir, of course, has definitely been the most attacking [spin] option for us,” he remarked. “He missed a key part of the tournament through injury. To have Tahir back in the line-up now is obviously tremendous for me as the captain because he’s the kind of bowler that South Africa had been missing. He’s obviously one of the reasons for our success in this World Cup.”
Smith emphasised the conditions in the subcontinent have contributed to the spinners taking the limelight in the tournament.
Talking of South African slow bowlers, he praised their collective efforts and expected them to be on song against NewZealand.
“Our spinners have done superbly in the tournament and it’s a great opportunity for them to perform in conditions suitingthem. Back home they don’t get such chances because the pitches in south Africa are more in favour of pace bowling,” he said.
“Coming to this game, I think we don’t need to perform anything special. As long we play to our strength I think there is no reason to think pessimistically because the great thing for us is that everyone has contributed, particularly the spinners. But one can’t take anything for granted against New Zealand because they are a fighting team.”
Vettori, meanwhile, hoped from his side a repeat of their clinical display against Pakistan when the Black Caps outplayed the 1992 champions by 112 runs in Pallekele over two weeks ago.
“Obviously, it is going to be a huge challenge for us to play South Africa who have been one of the top teams of the World Cup. We are disappointed with our performance in the last game we played [against Sri Lanka]. But hopefully if we can look back to the Pakistan game and recreate what we did against them then we could have some chance [of winning] against South Africa tomorrow,” the New Zealand captain stressed.
Vettori said it would better for the New Zealanders to keep their minds clear and not think of how Bangladesh won the one-day series against them here last year.
“It is irrelevant to think about what happened during the last time we played here.
“This is the quarter-final of the World Cup and we’ve to think positively. The guys know the ground pretty well and are looking forward to the game. What better time than now to put up a good performance in a knockout match of the World Cup. If we are able to build a [decent] total and stick to the game plan then there’s some chance for us here.”