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Rediff.com  » Sports » World No 1 status has made South Africa arrogant: Flower

World No 1 status has made South Africa arrogant: Flower

Source: ANI
November 17, 2009 15:31 IST
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England cricket team coach Andy Flower has accused South Africa of being too big for their boots. Flower hit back at the home side's attack on England's tactics following their hammering in Sunday's second Twenty20 match.

Andy FlowerFlower reckons their status as the world's No 1 team might have gone to their heads.

His contempt for some of the South Africans' comments was clear when he said: "I went through my career as a player - and I will continue to do so as a coach - in as modest a fashion as possible.

"Perhaps their status as the No 1 ranked team is encouraging them to react differently. You would have to ask them why they said these things. But I'm very clear about how I want to approach the balance between being confident and modest," The Sun quoted Flower, as saying.

Flower was reacting to South Africa coach Mickey Arthur's comment that England's cricket was "predictable". He also joked that, when Jonathan Trott and Kevin Pietersen were batting together, there were 15 South Africans on the field.

Despite Arthur's comments, South African bowling legend Allan Donald, reckons his country's current attack is close to a crisis.

Donald said: "You can see Arthur and Graeme Smith are worried - the bowlers are not where they should be. The vibes I'm picking up is they are worried they won't be able to take 20 wickets in the Test matches."

Donald was commentating for Sky Sports during its live and HD coverage of England's tour to South Africa.

England fined for slow over-rate

England have been fined for a slow over-rate during the second Twenty20 in Centurion on Sunday.

Stand-in skipper Alastair Cook has lost 20 per cent of his match fees for his side failing to bowl their overs in the alloted time, while his team-mates have been fined 10 per cent of their match fees, The Sun reports.

ICC match referee Javagal Srinath imposed the fines after England was found one over short of its target at the end of the match, which it lost by 84 runs.

Should Cook, as Twenty20 captain, make the same mistake two more times in the next 12 months, he faces a one-match suspension.

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Source: ANI

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