South Australian captain Johan Botha says his red-faced Redbacks can turn their cricket season around in one day.
SA, crushed in consecutive Sheffield Shield matches to start their season, host Tasmania in a one-dayer at Adelaide Oval on Sunday.
The Tigers hammered SA by an innings and 30 runs in this week’s Shield game, prompting Redbacks Darren Berry to publicly apologise to fans.
But South African Botha believes a change to 50-over cricket is what is needed by the Redbacks, the reigning one-day title-holders.
“Guys know they have done it in one-day cricket and are really confident in one-day cricket,” Botha said.
“I think we can get some momentum back if we have a good outing on Sunday and have our first win of the season, it definitely does bring a bit of confidence.
“So we’re positive about that and we’re looking forward to Sunday and we want to start well.”
SA tied with Tasmania in last summer’s one-day final, with the Redbacks winning the trophy as they finished the preliminary round in top spot.
The Tigers also lost the Shield final last summer, giving them extra incentive to go one better this season, Tasmanian gloveman Tim Paine said.
“We expect to win every game of cricket we play … that is the way we go about it,” Paine said.
“Our staff have done really well to put a pretty good squad together over the last five or six years and at the moment it’s probably at its best, depth-wise.
“So we are pretty confident this year of hopefully going a step further in both competitions.”
The Tigers were without Australian Twenty20 players George Bailey and Xavier Doherty in their Shield victory in Adelaide.
But both stalwarts return for the one-dayer, with limited overs specialist Ben Laughlin also brought into Tasmania’s side.
Teams:
SA: Johan Botha (capt) Dan Christian, Tom Cooper, Callum Ferguson, Jake Haberfield, Phil Hughes, Michael Klinger, Tim Ludeman, Nathan Lyon, Kane Richardson, Alex Ross, Daniel Worrall (12th man to be named).
Tasmania: George Bailey (capt), Aiden Blizzard, Jackson Bird, Luke Butterworth, Mark Cosgrove, Ed Cowan, Xavier Doherty, James Faulkner, Jason Krejza, Ben Laughlin, Ricky Ponting, Tim Paine (12th man to be named).
