Quietly confident South Africa take on Kenya

South Africa have an embarrassingly clean slate against Kenya. The Proteas, second only to Australia in world cricket at the moment, are especially well-organised when it comes to limited-overs cricket.

The first to embrace modern coaching methods and technological advances, the South Africans are probably more professional and businesslike than any other team in the world. Things could not be more different for their next opponents - Kenya.

When the two teams line-up at the R Premadasa Stadium tomorrow, not too many people will back the Kenyans to go all the way. Of the seven times they have come up against the South Africans, the Kenyans have only been competitive once, reaching 196 after restricting South Africa to 220/7 at the Nairobi Gymkhana in September 1999. Perhaps that happened because the South Africans were a bit complacent.

After finishing an optional net session at the Premadasa Stadium, South African skipper Shaun Pollock made it clear that they were not taking the game against Kenya lightly: "We can't take Kenya lightly. There's no doubt about that. From a confidence point of view it's important that we go out there and play well. They came close against the West Indies and gave Australia a good game in Kenya so we're going to have to motivate ourselves and really come out firing."

Although they are going into the game in all seriousness, South Africa are likely to miss more than one key player. Nicky Boje has been ruled out as he fractured a finger attempting to take a return catch against the West Indies. Allan Donald who has a niggle in the right heel that has bothered him off and on over the years might get a bit of rest while he can and Jonty Rhodes has an injured thumb from Morocco that has not quite healed completely.

In all likelihood Dale Benkenstein will come in for Rhodes, Makhaya Ntini for Donald and Justin Ontong for Boje.

After discussing the injury worries Pollock mentioned that his team had watched a part of the game between Kenya and the West Indies.

"We saw the first half - Kenya's bowling and then had to go to practice. We've got tapes of their batting in the team room. Maurice (Odumbe) and Steve (Tikolo) are the key men, good batters and Maurice does a job with the ball too so we've identified that and we're working out our game plans for each person," explained Pollock.

That gives you an example of the kind of rigour with which the South Africans approach playing the game. When one cheeky reporter tried to suggest that the South Africans, if they won the toss, should bowl first so the game would be over as soon as possible, Pollock said quickly: "We will look at the wicket and then decide whether we bat or bowl. You can't decide beforehand, that's not the way we play. Kenya are the best of the non-Test playing nations; there's no doubt about that. Some might argue that they're even better than Bangladesh at the moment. So we're not going to try and get it over quickly or anything. We're going to treat it like a proper One-Day International which it is," said the skipper.

Sandeep Patil, former India international and now coach of the Kenyan team is raring to go despite the loss against the West Indies. Unlike the South Africans, the Kenyans have no injury worries at all and are fully fit.

The coach highlighted how every game is important for the Kenyans: "For us, every single game is a big one, every opponent tough. It's not enough for us to just play to our ability, we have to rise above that. We have nothing to lose," he said.

Although not quite in the class of some other teams in world cricket, the Kenyans are certainly not afraid to try their hardest.

"When we take the field we have to believe in ourselves. What we discuss and plan is important and we need to do that. But at the end of the day we need to play positive cricket out in the middle and get the result," explained Patil.

When asked what he thought of his team's performance in getting close against the West Indies, Patil shrugged. "See there really is not much to getting close. In one-day cricket the margin of victory or defeat is often just 20 runs. So you need to go out there and win, not just get close. You're never `quite close' or anything as people say. We have to go out with a positive mindset and play above ourselves," he said.

Although Patil was a touch understated when he spoke of his team's chances, it is clear that his team do fancy themselves to have a good game or two. They have already shown in the past that they have it in them to take on the best.

"When we get on the field we want to approach the game and be competitive. We don't want to look silly being bowled out for 50 or less," opined Patil.

It seems to be a routine these days, and a dangerous one at that, for captains to sound a warning before matches. Such theatrics were confirmed to aggressive boxers and loud football managers bit seem to have filtered subtly into cricket as well.

Pollock warned, "We know Jacques is just one good knock away from a big score. He's been hurt by the fact that he has not been able to score as many runs as he would have liked. So people better watch out. He'll be more determined once he does get in the groove."

Come on Jacques, let's see what you've got. That's what some competing teams will say. Kenya of course, will find out soon enough.