{"id":6405,"date":"2011-12-24T00:43:53","date_gmt":"2011-12-23T22:43:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/12\/cricket-south-africa-seek-ruthless-approach\/"},"modified":"2011-12-24T00:43:53","modified_gmt":"2011-12-23T22:43:53","slug":"cricket-south-africa-seek-ruthless-approach","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/cricket-south-africa-seek-ruthless-approach\/","title":{"rendered":"Cricket-South Africa seek ruthless approach"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t<\/span><\/p>\n

By Jason Humphries<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

DURBAN<\/span> Dec 23 (Reuters) – South Africa have to become
\nmore ruthless in their approach as they seek to secure a
\nseries-winning victory in the second test against Sri Lanka,
\ncaptain Graeme Smith said on Friday.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

South Africa have not won a home series since beating
\nBangladesh in 2008. They have lost and drawn two series against
\nAustralia and drawn series against England and India.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

The hosts are coming off a comprehensive innings and 81-run
\nwin over Sri Lanka in the first test in Centurion and have the
\nchance to win the three-test series when the second test starts
\nat Kingsmead in Durban on Dec. 26.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

“We are in the process of improving certain facets of our
\ngame. Being more ruthless, being able to string three sessions
\ntogether in a day is something that we are really trying to do.
\nWe haven’t been able to do that consistently and that is where
\nwe have been costing ourselves so we want to improve on that,”
\nSmith told a news conference.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

South Africa’s skipper went on to say that it was important
\nthat his team did not lose their focus during the Christmas
\nbreak.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

“The preparation is going to be important. Making the most
\nof our time at this time of year is crucial. During Christmas it
\nis important that you maintain your focus. Our preparation is a
\nkey factor to that,” he explained.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

South Africa have had a mixed start to their home
\ninternational season this year drawing a two-test series against
\nAustralia before the heavy win over Sri Lanka.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

Smith said that he felt that his team had shown improvement,
\npartly down to the fact that the same XI had taken to the field
\nin three consecutive tests.
\n\u00a0 Continued…<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Jason Humphries DURBAN Dec 23 (Reuters) – South Africa have to become more ruthless in their approach as they seek to secure a series-winning victory in the second test against Sri Lanka, captain Graeme Smith said on Friday. South Africa have not won a home series since beating Bangladesh in 2008. They have lost […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[830,2370,183],"class_list":{"0":"post-6405","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-south-africa","7":"tag-news","8":"tag-reuters","9":"tag-south-africa-2","10":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6405","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6405"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6405\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6405"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6405"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6405"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}