Kallis: Our Fate Is In Our Hands

SOUTH AFRICA NEWS

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Kallis - confident ahead of must-win match.

South Africa are eyeing the first of three big performances in their 'quarter-final' against England, on the way to what they hope will be World Cup glory.

Graeme Smith's side always knew their Super Eight match against England in Barbados on Tuesday was win-or-bust - and vice-captain Jacques Kallis was still more convinced of that after South Africa's five-wicket defeat against New Zealand at Queen's Park.

The Proteas suffered the worst of the conditions on offer on Saturday, put in under cloudy skies and battling to 193 for seven only for the Kiwis to coast home with 10 balls to spare as the sun shone on them.

Kallis reported the loss did little to change the equation South Africa were already working on.

"I think the game against England was always a must-win game for us," he said.

"In a way, it is not a major thing losing this match.

"We would have liked to win obviously, but England is now basically a quarter-final for us."

Kallis' third-wicket partner Herschelle Gibbs made a determined half-century against New Zealand - but two more 50s from Stephen Fleming and Scott Styris settled matters to put the Kiwis through to the semi-finals, alongside Australia and Sri Lanka.

"Our fate is still in our hands. The next match was always a must-win - now it just becomes even more must-win," Kallis added.

"England are a good one-day side. But so are we - and we back ourselves that we can come out on top."

He concedes that South Africa, the International Cricket Council's top-ranked one-day team, have not always performed to their best in this tournament - but insists their latest setback came through no fault of their own.

"It is frustrating when conditions play such a big role in a game," said Kallis.

"The toss was vital, and the first 20 overs was like a green Test wicket - and that killed us up front."

South Africa have made their mistakes over the past month - yet Kallis is still optimistic about their chances of Cup silverware.

"We have had one or two bad performances along the way, but this one you can write off to conditions," he said.

"Losing to Bangladesh was a bad result and one we hope does not come back to bite us.

"But if we can put in three big performances now we could end up with the World Cup in our hands."

Kiwi captain Fleming will be an interested observer when South Africa and England do battle - and he is loath to commit to which team he expects to win.

"It will be tight, and I suppose it will come down to dealing with pressure in a quarter-final scenario," he said.

"Probably the expectation is on South Africa to win it, because of their ranking - so England are in a situation where they could come from behind and have the least to lose.

"It will be a good contest."

As for New Zealand, Fleming was delighted with a performance which puts them back on course and gives them renewed confidence for Friday's top-of-the-table match against Australia in Grenada.

"We corrected our mistakes from the last game and really didn't put a foot wrong," said the captain, referring to his team's defeat against Sri Lanka two days beforehand.

"We used the first 10 or 15 overs very well. The make-up of the team was spot-on, and the way we bowled was spot-on as well.

"We were desperate to win the toss, because that was the definite plan we had set - and we knew there was going to be some assistance for some time, because of the nature of the pitch.

"It was a big advantage for us."

Fleming is delighted with New Zealand's progress so far - and is optimistic about what is still to come.

"We were desperate to get to the semis, and now we can move forward with some real enthusiasm - whoever we play," he said.

"It's always easy to get up for Australia games, because they are so important to us," Fleming added, as he looked forward to Grenada's final Super Eight match.

It is a case of so far so good for a country who have yet to reach a Cup final.

"Just to get to the semis was the first step, and then you are two games away from winning the World Cup," added their captain.

"That's a pretty exciting proposition but also one that is unchartered, because we haven't gone further than the semi-finals before.

"But I think this team is pretty well-equipped to deal with that challenge."