| Defeats
turn up the heat Tuesday, 22 January, 2002 South African batsman and BBC Sport Online columnist Neil McKenzie reflects on a tough one-day schedule. We are now bang in the middle of the one-day series here in Australia and although we started off quite well, the last few days have not gone as planned. Our win in Melbourne in the first one-dayer was really sweet as it erased some of the memories of losing the Test series there just after Christmas. After that it was a quick trip to Tasmania to play New Zealand in Hobart and the team clicked really well defending a moderate score despite cold and windy weather coming in off the sea. From there it was a complete change-up to This was my second time in the city, having passed through in August 2000 when we came to practice ahead of the indoor one-dayers at the Colonial Stadium in Melbourne. The climate in Brisbane is just like that of Durban back home, yet I'm told it can be even hotter and even more humid. Thankfully, on our two match days, the heat and humidity wasn't as bad as the Kiwis had it when they played a warm-up game against Australia A two weeks earlier in a temperature in excess of 40 degrees Celsius and humidity in the 90s. Shane Bond, the new Kiwi speedster, who has had some impressive performances so far in the VB Series, was carted off to hospital suffering from heat stroke and dehydration and had to be put on a drip to recover over night. Home advantage Fortunately for us, we did not experience any of these medical problems although our management were bemoaning the fact that we allowed the Aussies to schedule us for two one-dayers in Brisbane back to back. The same thing happened to the team in 94 when they also lost both games, only to make the finals through the back door by winning in Perth. The format for the one-dayers certainly benefits the Aussie team as they don't have any back-to-back matches to play whereas we had them last weekend and the Kiwis face the same this weekend in Adelaide. Be that as it may, we are now in the home straight of this tour and our mission for the next two weeks is to play good one-day cricket and make the finals in Melbourne and Sydney. We are looking forward to a few days off after three matches in four days and it will be good to spend some time in Sydney before we travel to Adelaide on Friday. I hope to take advantage of any good weather we may have and spend some time relaxing on the beach as well as taking in some of the sights I never got to see when we were here during the Test. Until the next time, this is Neil McKenzie in Australia for BBC Sport Online. |