from supercricket.co.za April 08 2002 (thanks Jenny)
According to Shaun Pollock, the thorough hiding his team got at the hands of
the Australians was the perfect wake-up call for next year's World Cup. Pollock
was speaking ahead of the last game of the current one-day series to be played
at Newlands on Tuesday.
The South African captain is hoping to salvage a bit of pride by winning the
last game and by not losing the 7-match series 0-6 (one match was tied).
"Had we won the series we would perhaps have become overconfident. However
we were woken up in time. I still believe we could have won if the World Cup if
it started tomorrow, but now we gained ten months extra to pull ourselves
together," Pollock said.
He already has his ideal squad in mind and hopes that Mfuneko Ngam will be fit.
Pollock wants to go into the last game with an extra bowler in the form of
Nantie Hayward and said the Australians were far from unbeatable. "I don't
think we will ever come up against such a strong Test side. They were an
excellent unit and it was brave of them to sack the Waugh brothers from the
one-day side.
"They have a lot of confidence and their setup is very strong. However, if
we could play to our potential and things go right on the day, we could beat
them. We would probably only play them once in the World Cup anyway.
"They deserve to be the favourites which suits us well, because I have
never seen the favourites lift the cup."
South Africa and Australia will not be playing in the same group in the World
Cup, but should meet each other in the second round or in the semi-final or
final.
The Aussie captain, Ricky Ponting said that the good victories the team achieved
on the fields where the World Cup is going to be contested were a huge boost to
his team's morale.
"It will give all of us a load of confidence," he said.
He also thinks his team got a wake-up call of their own when the highest total
in 30 years (326 for 6) was scored against them in Port Elizabeth.
"Our bowling is built on discipline. Our bowlers are all ashamed about what
happened to them on Saturday and want to put matters straight," Ponting
said.