We will be fighting tooth and nail to win tomorrow, says Farhaan Behardien
South Africa's Farhaan Behardien has insisted that his side will do everything in power to win the deciding T20I match at Newlands on Saturday. Behardien also lauded the performance of wicket-keeper Heinrich Klaasen, whose batting heroics in the last game helped the hosts equalize the series 1-1.
After suffering a humbling 5-1 defeat in the ODI series, the Proteas have shown fight and determination in the T20I series as they bounced back to win the second one and level the series, thanks to a match-winning performance by skipper JP Duminy and Heinrich Klassen. And Farhaan Behardien, who was at the other end of the crease when Duminy hit the winning runs, seemed adamant that the hosts are confident of repeating it.Â
"Our batsmen have a different mindset going into T20 cricket. It is down to us to get that ascendancy back from the ODI series. I believe we have played them better. In the T20s the guys have been in some form. I have no doubt we will do better (tomorrow),"
“Tomorrow is a big game. We learnt a lot from Johannesburg and we applied that in Centurion. As long as we keep improving, we will do better. We are playing against a strong outfit but we have a plan. We had a good training session today. We will be fighting tooth and nail to win tomorrow,” said Behardien at a pre-match press conference.
Behardien went on to praise wicket-keeper Heinrich Klaasen, who has stepped up in the absence of the first-choice gloveman Quinton de Kock with some impressive displays in the ODI series, as well as in the T20I series.
“Klaasen has come from a long line of players graduated from Tukkies institute. He has played a lot of varsity cricket and has played a lot of tournaments varsity style. He has played for Titans for a long time, been successful and has built his character around that. He normally used to bat in the middle order but now has built up his character and built up his game," Behardien said.
Behardien further went on to applaud the youngsters like Junior Dala and Reeza Hendricks, who have made the transition from the junior team to the senior team without much difficulty.
"Junior has been a consistent performer over last couple seasons and I can see him get a go in full flight in the future. Reeza isn't too much of a newbie. He is the highest run-getter in our local competitions, obviously off that tournament and in this series. We lost the