On Friday, assistant coach Ryan ten Doeschate stated that the Indian team has a certain amount of “desperation” to win the current ODI series against South Africa due to their poor performance in the previous Test series.
India is currently level at 1-1 in the one-day series after losing the two-match Test rubber 0-2. The Proteas triumphed by four wickets in Raipur after KL Rahul’s team defeated them by 17 runs in the previous game in Ranchi.
“It’s a very different personnel of players but the guys are very aware of the responsibility of what they’re representing,” Ten Doeschate said on the eve of the series-deciding third ODI in Visakhapatnam.
“We always want to win but, yeah certainly, when a few losses do start stacking up and performances have been below what we expect from ourselves, I think it’s a slight desperation from the series point of view.”
Ten Doeschate quickly clarified, however, that the team members are accustomed to handling such pressure situations.
“I don’t think pressure ever goes away for this team. You know, bilateral series, when the series is on the line, there is an element of pressure there in itself. We try to focus on the process. We try and assess what’s going to be a good score and then the batting unit has to go about getting it,” he said.
The former Dutch all-rounder acknowledged that the dew had a significant impact on the previous two games and knew it might have an impact on Saturday as well.
“The dew factor is so big here. It’s obviously not our fault but it is our responsibility to find a way to get around. I think we’re doing pretty well in the defending department now (if India bowl second).
“And obviously we have assessed this is a high-scoring ground with fairly small boundaries. But the biggest challenge again is going to be sorting out the disparity between batting first and batting second, and that is the biggest challenge for us.”
Does the match’s 1.30 p.m. start time eliminate the dew factor?
“Just on the timing, I think it’s, you know, the fact that the dew kind of falls as the second innings starts and it means that the dew is there for the whole time. So, a different start time could bring that effect down a little bit and slow it to hours early.
“There is a solution but obviously there are so many moving parts to play in terms of broadcasting etc. So I guess it’s a futile conversation.”
According to him, the Indian batting squad practiced at the nets in an effort to adapt to the requirement for additional runs under these circumstances.
“We actually tried to factor it into our batting. You know in the start of the first game we thought 320 was sort of high and then we put a frame on that 350, even given the ball coming it was a good effort to get that score.
“You always want more runs and again the conversations have been around how can we maximise it, even then sometimes the conditions make it tough but again the responsibility is to find ways in tough conditions,” he added.
