Steve Smith aims to capitalize on South Africa’s low morale

Australia and South Africa are deemed as cricketing powerhouses and are renowned for decimating oppositions on their day. However, recently, both teams have gone through contrasting fortunes in international cricket. The Kangaroos have been in prime form having traced down the record-run chase in T20 Internationals against New Zealand.

Meanwhile, they have also won four games on the trot to book a berth in the Final of the Trans-Tasman tri-series in Auckland. On the contrary, South Africa has had a horrendous outing against Virat Kohli’s India having capitulated to a comprehensive series defeat in the six-match ODI affair. Quite expectantly, the drubbing has inflicted a massive dent in the morale of the cricketers.

The mind-game by Smith

Australia is known for playing mind games before a commencement of a series. Steve Smith, the Australian skipper has done exactly that on the eve of South Africa’s upcoming Test series against Australia in March. In a pre-match conference, Smith talked about starting well in the series, while not allowing the hosts to recover from their series-loss.

‘I’ve been watching bits and pieces of it. Been watching bits of the one-dayers the last couple of days as well,’ said Smith. ‘They probably haven’t been at their best, the South Africans, and the Indians have played really well. For us, they might be a little low leading into the Test series and it’s important to try to keep their confidence down and start really well in the first Test match in Durban” Smith said as quoted by Cricket 365.

The Aussie skipper also hailed the team for their unbeaten streak in South Africa and vowed to carry forward their rich vein of form. “It means a lot. Coming to South Africa, it’s probably the most similar conditions you get to Australia or probably any conditions in the world for two countries. This is going to be a good challenge for this group to hopefully keep that record up.” Smith added.

Here’s the video of the conference