da dobrowin： Graeme Smith shrugs off claims from Australia that his side are perennial chokers
Andrew Miller in St Kitts15-Mar-2007
‘Chokers? Us? Not quite!’ © AFP
Graeme Smith, South Africa’s captain, has hit back at Australia’sclaims that his side are perennial chokers, suggesting that – of late- it is his team, the new World No. 1s, who have shown the big-gamementality that is needed to win a World Cup.”In our last ten one-dayers we have been under pressure at times andwe have got out of it superbly well,” said Smith, whose side takes onthe Australians at Warner Park in St Kitts on March 24. “We’ve been four- orfive-down and still managed to get totals of close to 300. We’ve lostgames and gone on to win series 3-1 against some good one-day teams.Our ability to get ourselves out of pressure is something we have donequite well.”We’ve got a number of matchwinners in our side and that’s always ahuge asset,” added Smith. “Australia has struggled of late before thistournament, in some finals and in New Zealand, but both teams comeinto this tournament with the same pressure on their shoulders, thesame desire to perform well. Both teams are looking forward to March24, hopefully it’s going to be a cracking game.”Smith’s assertion came as a response to the latest volley from GlennMcGrath, a character who can always be relied upon to stir the pot.”I’ve always felt they’re a team that don’t handle pressure as well asthe Australian team,” said McGrath. “They fear losing more thanbacking themselves to win, and the fact they are ranked No.1 now meansa lot more pressure to hold that position.””We were surprised nothing came from Glenn slightly earlier,”countered Smith. “From our point of view it really means nothing.We’ve handled pressure better than Australia of late in the big games,so I guess it’s just another drop in the ocean.”We will take things as they come,” added Smith. “We have playedsuperb cricket over the last year-and-a-half in the one-day form ofthe game and I think our key focus has been getting all areas of ourgame right. We know if we perform we’ve got the players and the teamand the passion to perform well over here. That’s our focus at themoment. We haven’t really taken too much notice of what’s been goingon around us. We will see when we get to Australia. We’ve got twogames before that.Smith was speaking during Australia’s fielding stint in their openingmatch against Scotland, but he added that being in such closeproximity to such arch-rivals was not an issue for the players. “Wehave shared hotels in Montego Bay and we were on the same plane,” saidSmith. “Relationships off the field are pretty good and mature.Players chat and say hello. But when it gets onto the field I’m prettysure it will be competitive, the same way Australia and South Africaplay all the time.”