“The victory in the second one-day match and the close finish here has given us the confidence. If we can play with a positive mind, we can win the fourth match,” remarked Shahid Afridi, the captain of the Pakistan team. “It is important to play positive cricket and we know if we play good cricket we can beat them,” added Afridi. He feels that had his top order batsmen played a bit more positively then his team could have avoided the two-run defeat in the third one-day match. Johan Botha, who captained South Africa in the absence of injured Graeme Smith, is hoping to win the fourth Aone-day match and bag the series. “If we win the series will be ours,” he said admitting that his team was under pressure in both matches. “We have got a young team and we will keep learning as we go on. Bowling in the dead has always been a challenge but our fielding in all the three games has been excellent.” Afridi admitted that it was fielding that made the difference in the third match. “We dropped crucial catches and we need to be as good as the South Africans in fielding,” he said.
Fear: All the three one-day matches are being played on the same wicket and both captains have expressed fear on how the wicket may behave. “It will be very difficult to play three games on the same track. There are chances that the ball may keep low and it could be a small total game,” said Afridi. Botha too said: “The wicket is not going to be easier as it is going to be same strip for all three one-dayers and that is going to be interesting.” All eyes will be on the inform Hashim Amla, the hero of their third one-day match with an unbeaten 119 runs. He is 14 runs short of his 1,000 runs in calendar year and Pakistan will be keen to pick his wicket early. Afridi wants his bowlers to bowl tightly. He openly admitted that he is unhappy with his spinner Saeed Ajmal’s bowling.
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