Africa-Press – South-Africa. Proteas stand-in Test skipper Aiden Markram has warned there will be no letting up as his team take on a determined Bangladesh outfit in the second Test in Chattogram from Tuesday (6am).
With regular skipper Temba Bavuma still recovering from an injury picked up before the series, Markram led South Africa to a comfortable seven-wicket victory, their first on the subcontinent in a decade, in the first encounter in Mirpur last week.
While their previous two encounters on the subcontinent ended in a stalemate, historical evidence shows South Africa have had the rub of the green playing against their Asian counterparts, winning 13 of the of the past 15 Test matches.
With the top six batters not necessarily performing to their potential, scoring just 97 runs in the first innings and 106 between them in their two innings, Markram said they needed to believe in themselves.
“Each batter needs to back their strengths and find ways to put the Bangladesh bowlers under pressure, which could make run-scoring a bit easier and free-flowing,” Markram said.
“We have to assess how the wicket plays and then look at our options.
“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 appreciate the opposition we go up 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 from their next five Tests, four back in South Africa, 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 to 15 at Lord’s Cricket Ground 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,” he said.
“You still need to win a lot of the remaining games 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, we give ourselves the best chance.”
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