Smith eyes maiden one day triumph in India

HYDERABAD (India)—South Africa’s young side must remain adapt quickly to the conditions if they are to continue their recent run of good form and claim a first one-day series triumph in India, according to skipper Graeme Smith.
South Africa, who have won their 16 of their last 17 matches with the other one tied, begin a five-match series against an in-form Indian side on Wednesday (today).
“It is quite an important season for us and we have started it well,” Smith told reporters. “India is always a challenge. We’re looking forward to it and hopefully we will get a good start.
“We have come here and we have got the players capable of beating India”.
The Proteas swept New Zealand 4-0 at home this month, extending their unbeaten one-day run which stretches back to their home defeat to England in January.
That is a considerable turnaround in form as they had won just one match from their previous 13. To keep it up, Smith said, South Africa need to adapt to India’s slower pitches.
“In South Africa you have a lot of pace and grass on the wicket,” he said. “In one-day cricket you need 12 guys who can produce that kind of game and hopefully we can show that kind of form in India”.
“We want to be the first South African team to come and win a one-day series in India”.
India are also on a high after their 6-1 home series victory over Sri Lanka, which ended last week, reversed their poor one-day form.
Indian captain Rahul Dravid said his team have struggled since reaching the 2003 World Cup final and it was important to keep their upturn of fortunes going.
“The spirit and attitude of the boys was fantastic in the last season,” he said. “We would like more of the same in this series as well”.
Dravid said the fact that South Africa had never won a series in India was irrelevant to this series.
“We see this as a new challenge,” he said. “I don’t see much in bothering about what happened in the past”.—Agencies