South Africa are working on a gameplan to tackle the spin duo of Amit Mishra and R Ashwin ahead of the semifinal clash of the ICC World Twenty20
Mirpur: Wary of India's "exceptional" spinners, South Africa are paying a lot of attention in devising a good gameplan against the spin duo of Amit Mishra and R Ashwin ahead of the semifinal clash of the ICC World Twenty20.
South African batsman JP Duminy said performing well against the Indian spinners will be a "big challenge".
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"Their spinners have bowled exceptionally well. We want to put up a big performance against their spinners. It is a big game. It s the semi-final of a World Cup and it doesn t get bigger than this," Duminy said after a team net session at the BCB Academy nets here.
Duminy, who scored 39 against Sri Lanka and 86 against New Zealand, has the experience of playing alongside Mishra in the IPL side Sunrisers Hyderabad.
The left-hander said having faced Mishra will certainly help but the job at hand remains tough.
"It's not only me who has played against him (Mishra) but some of the other guys have also played against him. You kind of know what to expect from Mishra. He has been on top form for India in this tournament and definitely, we are not going to take him lightly. We will certainly do our homework and see to it that our gameplan is in order," he said.
Imran Tahir and JP Duminy (left) during a training session during the ongoing ICC World Twenty20 tournament. File Pic/AFP
Apart from Duminy, stand-in captain AB de Villiers has also been in good nick but Duminy feels that semi-final will be a new day.
"We have been successful in the last few games but that does not necessarily mean that we will be successful again. We know that their spinners will be key components to their team."
While conceding that India s familiarity with Mirpur will be an advantage of sorts for Mahendra Singh Dhoni and co., the soon to-be 30 Duminy does not think it will have a lot of bearing in the end result.
"I guess it will (familiarity with Mirpur). But it is a new game. No matter what sort of things you have gone through in this tournament, counts for nothing now. Certainly you take a lot of confidence from your wins. But the team that plays better will win."
It might be a weird feeling but South Africa have won their last three group league matches by slender margins of 2, 6 and 3 runs respectively. But the art of winning from losing position will keep them in good stead, feels the gutsy left-hander, who is a respected name in the T20 circuit across the world.
"We will be taking a lot of confidence from those games in which, we came on top. Two of those games, we were not meant to win. The ways to win a game out of nothing is something we will take a confidence from," Duminy said.
Duminy termed playing at the Sher-e-Bangla in Mirpur as a big relief after having had to deal with dew factor in Chittagong.
"Obviously, it was challenging for us. Two games now we have had to deal with the dew factor. But I guess we were trying to find a way to get around it as there s no need to complaint about it or look for excuses. We have to find a way.
"I thought we did an exceptional job to defend that total against England. It was a big high for us. We had our gameplans in order and ways to get around the dew factor. We know that we will play pre-dominantly spin against India but like I said, our preparation is in order."
South African team had a light yet intensive two-hour session at Academy nets today.
While Dale Steyn didn't go full tilt at the nets and predictably so, Morne Morkel was seen to bowl off-breaks with action of a 'chucker'. Jonty Rhodes, here as a part of the commentary team, dropped in during the session. He was seen having a chat with head of selection committee Andrew Hudson where he was telling his former teammate about certain fielding postures.
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