With one win in the bag, Proteas coach Shukri Conrad believes his team can make history again by beating India in the second Test in Guwahati starting this weekend.
Winning the first Test by 30 runs within three days in Kolkata at the weekend, the SA team earned their first Test victory in India since 2010.
And while Conrad said the national side would take an opportunity to celebrate their hard-fought triumph, with an extra two days in the bag to prepare for the series decider, he said they were still focused on the main goal of their tour, which was to win a Test series in India for the first time in 25 years.
“The job is far from done. You don’t come to a country to win a Test match, you obviously want to win the series,” Conrad said.
“So I’m sure the boys will celebrate hard – they’ve got two extra days to recover – but Guwahati will present its own challenges, and I’m pretty certain and quietly confident that we’ll be up to the task there as well.”
All-round ability
Conrad admitted the national squad did not boast some of the match-winners of previous Proteas teams.
He felt, however, that they had managed to do what other sides had not by combining well and believing in their ability in any conditions.
“The psyche now is such that whilst we might not have the ability that a lot of teams had, or we haven’t untapped that ability yet, what we lack in that we certainly make up for in the ability to play as a unit and the resilience we show. We never give up,” he said.
“I’m so proud of this group in terms of the belief they’ve got and how they pull together as a unit. It will do wonders for our psyche going forward.”
Building self-belief
Their latest victory would give the world Test champions further confidence, according to Conrad, that they could cement their place as the best team in the world in the five-day format.
“You want to create an environment and a belief in the side that they shouldn’t be surprised when they do certain things, when they come to India and beat them,” he said.
“It’s tough – it’s a massive achievement – but this is what we’re able to do and hopefully we’ll be able to do that in Guwahati as well. It certainly sets it up beautifully.”
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