Duminy says hard work looms for Proteas MyZA

JP Duminy at a training session at the Adelaide Oval (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

JP Duminy insists there is still a lot of hard work ahead, after his career-best 150 not out in the Proteas‘ one-off ODI against the Netherlands on Friday in Amstelveen.

Duminy made his comeback from injury after a seven month absence in the Proteas’ first of two warm-up matches ahead of the ICC Champions Trophy starting in England and Wales next week.

“I’m pleased with the way I performed,” he said.” It’s the ideal way to come back but there is still a lot of hard work to come.

“The Netherlands is not the toughest opposition around so we are going to have our work cut out in the next week before our first game.”

“I don’t want to rave about my innings too much, there is a lot of good to take out of it but in saying that there is also a lot of work ahead. I think the work that I have put in over the last few months during my rehab has definitely helped and I’m just happy that my comeback started off well.”

The middle order received a decent workout against the Netherlands attack and will be boosted after strong performances from Duminy, Faf du Plessis and Colin Ingram.

“Myself and Colin made sure the intensity was up,” he said about the 150-run partnership. “We worked on rotating the strike which was key at that stage of the innings.”

“Faf and I looked to push the run-rate towards the end of the innings, he came in and was hitting the ball really well so we pushed that momentum, it was a great workout for us.”

The Proteas’ next fixture is against Pakistan at The Oval on Monday, before they take on India in the tournament opener in Cardiff on June 6.