Cronje plots SA's next Test assault

Johannesburg - Life could get a lot tougher for England as the second Test of the series looms next week. Which suggests that Hansie Cronje, the South Africa skipper, may already be plotting a 2-0 lead by the time the Port Elizabeth game is over.

Although the West Indies played poorly last season and South Africa were rarely tested during the series, the perception is that even as positive as they claimed to be, Nasser Hussain's team may not be as happy two weeks from now should the second Test also fail to go the distance.

"It gets harder and harder as the tour goes on," said Cronje of England's predicament. "Fatigue, injuries, homesickness . . . everything. In my experience the last Test match (result) is always the hardest overcome."

And the South African selectors, no doubt with some input from Cronje and the coach Graham Ford, displayed their faith in the side which had beaten England by an innings and 21 runs at the Wanderers on Sunday by naming the same squad for the match in Port Elizabeth, starting next week with the team gathering in eight days time.

The only difference is that Mornantau Hayward has been added to the squad. Cronje admitted, although South Africa had been favoured by winning the toss in this first Test of the series against England.

"For me they key to this game was the third session on the first day. It was important for us to get through that session without too much damage and 64 for one was, for me, a pretty good position to be in.

"I felt if we could get through those initial 20 or 30 overs we could build a big score, which is what we did," he said. Which comes down to South Africa's batting confidence which has improved remarkably since a team camp last December during which a large number of hours of hard work was involved. It has been responsible for seven Test scores in excess of 400 in the 11 innings played this year.

"It was simple," was Cronje's prosaic comment. "We needed to get (the innings) off to a better start." What helped was that the success of the side had seen a higher level of workrate at camps and in the nets.

"The nature of the side is that it will work a little harder when we are playing well and when we are not playing well perhaps play a round of golf to relax," he added. "At present we are playing well and training a lot harder. "The side is more mature since our last series (with England) and we have concentrated on building partnerships. We certainly feel that our top six can now compete with any one."

Cronje felt that getting rid of England opener Michael Atherton the way they had in both innings had been a "plus for us". It had done much to lift the spirits of Allan Donald, named man of the match, and Shaun Pollock, seen by some, such as Surrey coach Keith Medlycott, who also held a similar role with Northerns, as the better bowler of the two.

"If you can take out their most experienced player early on you can make serious inroads," he said.