Tourists keep perspective Souce: BBC Sport - 19-08-03 - Neil McKenzie

Throughout this tour we have had a catchphrase: You have to control the controllables.

The toss had a lot to do with the outcome at Trent Bridge but how the pitch plays is out of our hands.

We've just got to adapt and play to the best of our ability on that surface. The same will be true this week at Headingley.

Obviously the guys are upset about losing the third Test but we took a lot of positives out of it as well in terms of the way we played.

From a personal viewpoint it was great to get some runs and get back in the mix because it has been a long road for me with my back injury.

We were the underdogs having lost the toss but losing four wickets right at the beginning of the second innings was really what finished it.

Batting on that fourth evening was just a matter of survival: the ball was moving, it was getting dark, the bowlers were fresh and they had their tails up because of the wickets.

I couldn't do anything about the ball that dismissed me the next morning - it kept low - but I thought if I'd kept in with Mark Boucher and matched his brilliant 50 we could still have been in a winning position.

Of course there are just two free days between the Tests. Back-to-back matches are quite tough but fortunately I had the first two off so it's a little easier.

Gary Kirsten had a hit on Tuesday and it seemed like he was OK, although they're still keeping an eye on him.

We won't know until Wednesday night who gets in but we've got seven quality batsmen for seven spots so the selectors are going to have their hands full.

Losing Shaun Pollock is a big blow but the guys back themselves enough to know we can win without any single player.

There are a few guys on the fringes who will get an opportunity and everyone else will have to take a bit more responsibility.

Whatever they say about the Headingley pitch we will not go for an all-seam attack. In any side you need variation.

Paul Adams bowled nicely in the last Test and it's going to be between him and Robin Peterson but I definitely think one will play.

In terms of training we have done nothing differently. We've still got the same sort of attitude, motivation and belief.

We had a winning draw in the first Test and played really well to win at Lord's. The last one could have gone either way.

Had we won the toss there is no doubt in my mind we would be 2-0 up at the moment and all the pressure would have been back on England.

But there is no point in making excuses; we're 1-1 and there are two to play. That last Test has just made the series more exciting.