Playing Indian spinners a big challenge: JP Duminy
Nitin Naik,TNN | Apr 2, 2014, 12.58 AM IST
DHAKA:
South Africa have never won a knockout match in a World Cup, either in the T20 or ODI version. Their only ICC title, though, had come here in Bangladesh in 1998 when they won the ICC Knockout Trophy, which has since been re-christened as the Champions Trophy.
However, in the fifth edition of the ICC World T20, they have got out of jail twice. After their loss to Sri Lanka in the first match of the tournament by five runs, they were one game away from crashing out of the event. They narrowly defeated New Zealand by two runs and avoided being embarrassed by The Netherlands, winning that game by six runs.
The experience of having played 'knockout' games will help the team, feels all-rounder JP Duminy. "We will be taking confidence from those games. Two of those (against NZ and Netherlands), we were not supposed to win. Winning a game out of nothing is definitely something we will take confidence from. But again, it will be a new game," he said after training on Tuesday.
Duminy is one of the few players in the South African team who plays spin well. De Villiers and Du Plessis are the other two. Having come from Chittagong, where the pitch aided spinners more than in Dhaka, Duminy and his teammates will have to face trial by spin when Amit Mishra, Ravindra Jadeja and R Ashwin attack them on Friday.
"We know that we will have to pre-dominantly play spin against India and we know it will be a big challenge for us. Spinners have bowled exceptionally against South African teams. We want to put up a big performance against them. It's a big game, the semifinal of a World Cup," he stressed.
After playing in the IPL for the Mumbai Indians in 2009 and 2010, Duminy turned out for the now defunct Deccan Chargers in 2011 and 2012. Last season, he played for Sunrisers Hyderabad, where in-form Indian leggie Amit Mishra was his teammate. Surely, he must have faced him a lot in the nets and would have given his teammates a clue or two about what to expect.
"Look, it's not only I who has played against him. There are other guys who have faced him. You know what to expect. He has been on top of his game in this tournament. We will do our homework and have our game plan in place."
