Bengaluru, Sep 22 (UNI) South Africa vice-captain Rassie van der Dussen wants his
side to play their cricket the "traditional South African way" when they face India in
the final Twenty20 International on Sunday.
After the first T20I of the three-match series was washed out, India won the second
game by seven wickets.
Van der Dussen admitted that his side is wary of the challenge of facing "one of the
strongest teams in the world" and wants to "play hard" in the final outing.
"We are coming here to win in the traditional South African way," he said here. "We
play hard, even though we have young players in our squad, we are not going to stand
back to anyone."
"That’s the emphasis, even if results are going your way or not. Sometimes on the
day, you’re not sure what's going to happen. We knew it’s going to be tough, India is
one of the strongest teams in the world," said Van der Dussen
In the second T20I in Mohali, India's top three batsmen – Rohit Sharma, Shikhar
Dhawan, and Virat Kohli – accounted for 124 of the 150 runs India had to chase down.
That was despite Rohit making only a run-a-ball 12, as after his dismissal, Dhawan
notched up a 31-ball 40, while skipper Kohli made a match-winning 72 not out off 52
balls, an ICC report said.
Van der Dussen said that his young bowlers should give their best "to nullify these
types of players", and strategise to dismiss them early and put pressure.
"Virat and Rohit are the two leading run-scorers at the moment in international T20s.
It’s a great challenge for young bowlers coming here to bowl to those type of guys.
We know what challenge is all about, there is a lot of challenges coming to India, and
we are honest to ourselves and saying that if we are going to win, we have to be at our
best to nullify these types of players," he said.
"We got Rohit early other night, Shikhar played well, though again, we didn’t have a
score to put pressure on him and Virat, and the partnership was massive," Van der
Dussen added.
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