South Africa is going to be a tough challenge – Mathews

South Africa is definitely on a role and currently playing their best cricket having beaten Australia 2-1 in Australia, but Sri Lanka skipper Angelo Mathews is confident that if his team can get their processes right and play to their potential they could beat anyone. “South Africa is going to be tough challenge for us. Most of the teams do well and win at home and they struggle overseas. It happens to any team but we want to try and achieve some wins overseas and turn the tables around,” Mathews told the *‘Daily News’*. The Sri Lanka team leaves for South Africa

today on a two-month tour.

“I am confident that my team can do it. We got a good combination where we have five fast bowlers and two experienced spinners and a solid batting order. Unfortunately we couldn’t take (Asela) Gunaratne and (Niroshan) Dickwella but that is a good headache to have. We want all of them fighting for their spot and its upto all of us to go out there and do our best for the country,” Mathews continued.

“Our main objective is to win the Test, ODI and T20 series, but we are not looking too far ahead but take one game at a time. We want to play really good competitive cricket and stick to our basics. If we do our processes right as I always said and if we give our 100 percent and play to our potential we can beat anyone.

“Zimbabwe and South Africa are completely different teams this is going to be a much bigger challenge for us as a team. We are not taking anything away from the boys for the hard work they put in Zimbabwe but this is going to be a tougher tour.

“We’ve been training very hard especially the Test squad who were in Sri Lanka for the past one month or so. The ODI guys had a little bit of rest and they have started training as well. The preparation has been good but the main challenge is going to be getting used to the conditions over there and getting used to the wickets. If we play to our potential I am pretty sure that we can beat South Africa,” he said.

Mathews was of the view that to achieve that, the batters must put enough runs on the board.

“If we can give our bowlers a chance by putting the runs on the board our bowlers have not let us down. With the bowling attack we’ve got we have some really experienced bowlers,” said Mathews. “With Dushmantha Chameera coming back into the team and young Nipun Sanjaya earning his spot in the Test team we got a fairly decent pace attack which can put them under pressure, but we need to score runs as a batting unit. It’s going to be our main challenge the boys have worked extremely hard in the past few weeks.”

Mathews sees the bounce the South African pitches will offer as the main obstacle for his batsmen. To overcome that the Lankan team has been practicing on a piece of granite to get that extra bounce.

“The pace the boys are used to its just that the bounce and the conditions that we need to get used to. We used a lot of granite stuff especially the batters. We prepared wickets slightly harder and with a little bit of grass which has a lot of carry. We’ve done everything possible to try and counter attack the South African fast bowlers and get used to their conditions,” explained Mathews. “Sri Lankan conditions are much different to what you find in South Africa. We have about 12 days before we play our first Test match on Boxing Day. We’ll try and use those days to the maximum so that we get things right.

“When you use a piece of granite the ball is coming on to you quicker. The granite is laid down on the pitch and you can throw the ball on it so that it comes on quicker. Most of the teams do that. Our wickets are such it doesn’t have much bounce the only option to get bounce and pace is to use granite.”

Sizing up the opposition they are bound to encounter Mathews said, “South Africa has been playing really good cricket in the past few months beating Australia in Australia which is never an easy task but they managed to do that. But this is a new series and both teams are starting from zero. The team that plays better cricket and that does less mistakes will come out victorious.”

Mathews credited the South African team’s success is due to them having a settled team. “The South African team looks pretty much the same except for one or two changes they are pretty much a settled team for the past 4-5 years. They’ve been going with the same sort of players maximum 20. Yes, they have lost games here and there but they managed to stick with the same combination and same players and managed to get the maximum out of them. Chopping and changing the team is not going to help them in the longer run.

They have managed a set combination and now the results are showing. The settled combination is the one that has led to their success today. If you look at all the top teams they are pretty much settled. That’s a good thing we can also take from. We are now doing the same we talked about it a lot.

The solution is not to chop and change but be patient with the players and pursue with them to get the maximum out of them going forward.” Following the retirement of several seniors Mathews is saddled with a team that is in the process of rebuilding with several new faces but he is extremely happy the way the team has started to jell. “It feels great. It all started from the Australian series, when you win it’s always good and when you lose it’s a bit difficult on most occasions. All the pressure is on you. That’s the nature of the game but the team has stuck together, stuck to our plans together and that’s all that matters,” said Mathews. “We are all the time helping each other. The seniors are playing a massive role in helping out the youngsters and they are also throwing a lot of ideas onto the table. It’s been a collective effort from the seniors and the younger players.”