‘We want to make home a fortress’: Proteas bowler Keshav Maharaj

While there seems to be a growing trend of away teams winning Test series on the international circuit, spin bowler Keshav Maharaj says South Africa are confident of stretching their fine run of form on home soil when they face Sri Lanka in the first of two Tests starting in Durban on Wednesday.

The SA team have gone unbeaten in their last five Test series on home soil, and they won their last Test series against Sri Lanka in January 2021, and Maharaj said they were eager to strengthen their status at home.

Having drawn against West Indies and beaten Bangladesh away from home over the last few months, the Proteas were confident of carrying that momentum into their battle with Sri Lanka.

And with matches being played at Kingsmead and St George’s Park (in Gqeberha) – two of South Africa’s most popular cricket grounds – Maharaj felt they had sufficient experience in the conditions to give the tourists a real fight.

“We know what we have to do as a unit. I think we’ve done that really well in the last couple of series away from home,” Maharaj said.

“It’s about making sure we make home a fortress, and there are a lot of guys who have played a lot of domestic cricket at these venues to be able to adapt accordingly and just focus on that.”

Weather conditions

While rain and cloudy conditions were predicted for the first couple of days of the opening Test, Maharaj said they were concentrating more on the match than the weather.

It was expected to clear up nearing the weekend, but the weather could have a significant effect on the outcome of the match. Maharaj insisted, however, that the hosts were focussing only on the controllables.

“The weather is something we can’t control or predict. We’re just focussing on what we have to do from a task perspective in getting ready,” said Maharaj, a senior member of the national squad.

“Whatever the weather is on the day, we’ll have to adjust accordingly, but for now we won’t focus too much on that.”