Botha hails newcomers' efforts

by S M March 30, 2009

"It went really nicely for me and for the team tonight," South Africa captain Johan Botha said. "All the guys who came in did really well.

"They deserved a chance after their domestic performances and have given the selectors something to think about.

"I think you've just got to keep it simple, build the pressure on the batsmen. I think they get rushed in a way and then you get the opportunity to get on top of them. Batsmen like lining you up, as you know, so the key is always to keep it basic.

"But all the praise should be reserved for the team. I think we played really nicely in these two games."

Van der Merwe said: "I couldn't ask for more than what happened tonight - making my debut for my country, playing on my home ground and putting in a good performance.

"It hasn't sunk in yet but I'm glad with the way things turned out. Hopefully, there'll be more."

"It was a disappointing performance tonight," said Australia captain Ricky Ponting. "I thought our first half was really good, I thought we bowled really well and fielded reasonably okay.

"But our batting wasn't up to standard. As you know, in any form of cricket, you need partnerships and we just haven't got the partnerships in this game.

"We did a lot better with the ball but our batting's really come up short. I thought the South Africans bowled very well, their spinners did a good job again and I don't think we had enough partnerships."

He added: "The 50-over game has been more of a favourite of mine than this Twenty20 game at the moment, I must admit.

"We're obviously looking forward to the series. We've been outplayed here and we've got some work to do on our 50 overs cricket as well after the last couple of series played in Australia."