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Proteas stand-in captain Aiden Markram wants his team to continue the form they showed in the first Test win over Bangladesh. Picture: RYAN WILKISKY/BACKPAGEPIX
Proteas stand-in Test captain Aiden Markram has warned there will be no let up as his team take on a determined Bangladesh in the second Test in Chattogram from Tuesday (6am).
With regular skipper Temba Bavuma still recovering from an injury sustained before the series, Markram led SA to a comfortable seven-wicket victory, their first on the subcontinent in a decade, in the first encounter in Mirpur last week.
With the top six batters not necessarily performing to their potential, scoring just 97 runs in the first innings and then 106 between them in their two innings, Markram said they need to believe.
“Each batter needs to back their strengths and find ways to put the Bangladesh bowlers under pressure, which could make run-scoring a little easier and free-flowing,” he said.
“We have to assess how the wicket plays and then look at our options, ultimately all we can do as players is back our strengths and options and then hope it’s your day.
“The top six are hungry to contribute, as was evident in our discussions recently, so hopefully starting tomorrow [Tuesday] we can put our best foot forward.”
With a sense of relief after breaking the decade-long winless run in Asia, Markram called on his charges to bring a similar energy to the second clash of the series.
“As people say, a good side finds ways to win consecutively and that's been our drive coming into this Test, so hopefully we can put in another good performance. We always appreciate the opposition we go against and even more so with Bangladesh in their conditions. It will be a tough game for sure but hopefully we can back it up by keeping the good vibes and the energy high,” he said.
Needing to win four of their next five Tests, four in SA, a triumph against the Tigers can further strengthen their bid to qualify for the ICC World Test Championship final which will be contested from June 11-15 at Lord’s in England.
“I don’t think it adds any extra pressure on us [for this Test], it is just an exciting opportunity that could be and that is how we are trying to view it. You still need to win a lot of the remaining games of cricket and we have five left until we know our fate.
“Five Test matches mean there is a lot of cricket still to be played, if we can go session by session and game by game, I think we then give ourselves the best chance,” Markram said.
Support our award-winning journalism. The Premium package (digital only) is R30 for the first month and thereafter you pay R129 p/m now ad-free for all subscribers.
Markram wants Proteas batters ‘to believe’
Proteas stand-in Test captain Aiden Markram has warned there will be no let up as his team take on a determined Bangladesh in the second Test in Chattogram from Tuesday (6am).
With regular skipper Temba Bavuma still recovering from an injury sustained before the series, Markram led SA to a comfortable seven-wicket victory, their first on the subcontinent in a decade, in the first encounter in Mirpur last week.
With the top six batters not necessarily performing to their potential, scoring just 97 runs in the first innings and then 106 between them in their two innings, Markram said they need to believe.
“Each batter needs to back their strengths and find ways to put the Bangladesh bowlers under pressure, which could make run-scoring a little easier and free-flowing,” he said.
“We have to assess how the wicket plays and then look at our options, ultimately all we can do as players is back our strengths and options and then hope it’s your day.
“The top six are hungry to contribute, as was evident in our discussions recently, so hopefully starting tomorrow [Tuesday] we can put our best foot forward.”
With a sense of relief after breaking the decade-long winless run in Asia, Markram called on his charges to bring a similar energy to the second clash of the series.
“As people say, a good side finds ways to win consecutively and that's been our drive coming into this Test, so hopefully we can put in another good performance. We always appreciate the opposition we go against and even more so with Bangladesh in their conditions. It will be a tough game for sure but hopefully we can back it up by keeping the good vibes and the energy high,” he said.
Needing to win four of their next five Tests, four in SA, a triumph against the Tigers can further strengthen their bid to qualify for the ICC World Test Championship final which will be contested from June 11-15 at Lord’s in England.
“I don’t think it adds any extra pressure on us [for this Test], it is just an exciting opportunity that could be and that is how we are trying to view it. You still need to win a lot of the remaining games of cricket and we have five left until we know our fate.
“Five Test matches mean there is a lot of cricket still to be played, if we can go session by session and game by game, I think we then give ourselves the best chance,” Markram said.
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