The Proteas will be in action at the ICC T20 World Cup again on Saturday when they face the Netherlands in New York.
The Proteas’ record against the Dutch at World Cups hasn’t been ideal of late and there will be some pressure in what will be an important game.
The wicket and outfield in New York has been a big topic of discussion during the first week of the tournament and it could level the playing field.
The destructive Proteas middle order batter Heinrich Klaasen said that the wicket hasn’t been the easy, but that it a part of cricket and they must just go out and get the job done.
“We definitely want to get one over the Netherlands, they have been playing good cricket against us,” said Klaasen.
“The wicket that we saw over the last couple of games levelled the playing field massively, and hopefully we will play on a new wicket. I that know there are three or four strips that can be used.
“The other strip was alight – the wicket India and Sri Lanka played on in the warm-up match). It was a 170 to 180 wicket, and that’s a decent score in America.
“We don’t mind the bowlers get something for them to work with, but it just needs to be a fair contest.
“Having played the previous game there against Sri Lanka, it gave us an indication of what we can expect, if the wicket stays the same. We have got experience playing on these types of wickets.
“We just need to take some responsibility, because it may not be a wicket that you can just tee off on and hit boundaries – we need to play clever cricket and make peace with it.”
Saturday’s game at the Nassau County Stadium will get underway at 4:30am.
Morgan Piek OFM Sport
