Ready for the ODI challenge

I’m sorry that my four-day involvement with the Titans has come to an end, but I love playing for my country. My goals for the one-day series against Sri Lanka are quite simple. I want to get a couple of good scores, but that all depends on the opportunities I get with the bat.

It’s important that I nail a couple of good scores down, and as I’ve said before, one of my goals is to produce match-winning performances. That could be just a 30 to win a game at the death, or, if I get the opportunity, a 70, 80 or even a hundred. Basically, not to be satisfied with average performances. So, match-winning performances are my priority, and if I do that, well then the team will win, and that is ultimately the most important thing, at the end of the day.

I’m looking forward to playing under AB de Villiers and chatting more with him and Gary Kirsten about what my role in the one-day side is. He’s a new captain, so he may have some different ideas as to what he wants from me.

What might be quite interesting is to see whether or not they see me playing a role with the ball. I hope that is the case, because I’ve really enjoyed bowling my leg-spinners the last year or so. I think I’ve done a pretty good job for the Titans, but my eight wickets in the four-day match against the Warriors may help in proving my case. It might help dispel the myth that I’m just a part-time bowler and not a proper spinner, because if you can take wickets in four-day cricket, then I think you can do a job in the one-day game.

It’s great going into a one-day series against a strong team like Sri Lanka, in good form. It’s actually the complete opposite from when I last played for South Africa – against Australia - when I had no cricket in me, after such a long time off.

Now I’m really confident with my game, coming off a couple of really satisfying performances in the domestic four-day competition, including a couple of hundreds, a couple of half-centuries and some wickets.

It all culminated in this last game against the Warriors. It was a great win for us, but even more special for Albie Morkel and myself. Both of us scored a hundred and a 50, and both of us picked up wickets. I was really chuffed to get four wickets in each innings with my leg-spin and like I said, I hope I get to continue that if given the chance with the Proteas. If I do get the chance, I’ll be tested, for sure, as the Sri Lankans are obviously very good players of spin.

There’s no doubt about it, the Sri Lankans are a dangerous one-day side and they will be even stronger with fast bowler Lasith Malinga in the line-up. He really is one of the world’s best up front, with the new ball and at the death. Then they’ve got Ajantha Mendis, the unorthodox spinner, and I think he’s dangerous as well. Those are probably the two who can take the game away from you with the ball, and I’ll have to watch them carefully.

With the bat, Tillekaratne Dilshan and Kumar Sangakkara are the ones to watch, I think. Dilshan, obviously, wasn’t that effective in the recent test series, but I expect him to come into his own in this one-day series, where he may feel a bit more comfortable playing his shots.

It’s going to be a great series.