Ontong hopes to avoid series whitewash
South Africa's stand-in T20 captain Justin Ontong says his squad is motivated to finish the T20 series against the West Indies with a win, and avoid the humiliation of a whitewash.
The West Indies hold an unassailable two-nil lead in the series, with the final showdown set for Kingsmead on Wednesday evening. The Proteas won the Test series two-nil. Ontong is leading the side as Faf du Plessis is rested.
Ontong said: "This is a big game for us, we owe it to ourselves. We have been playing good cricket, we have just been unlucky not to get past the final hurdle.
"We as a team are desperate to get a win under our belt. Two-one sounds better than three-nil so we want to go out there and make our fans and nation proud. We are going to fight hard."
Ontong led the Cape Cobras to the Ram Slam T20 Challenge title this season and says captaining his country is a challenge he is looking forward to take on.
"What a privilege, I'm just honoured," he said emotionally. "Faf played an exceptional innings the other night, he led all the way. He obviously needs a bit of rest before the one-day series.
"I'm just privileged to be captain of my country, it’s a dream come true. This is probably the proudest moment of my cricket career."
The 35-year-old hopes for an improved performance in the field, which ought to curb the big-hitting Chris Gayle and Marlon Samuels.
He said: "We have been playing some good cricket throughout the series. We have our plans in place and what let us down was probably our execution with the ball. Our batting has been really good, so I'm hoping for another strong performance tomorrow and hopefully everything clicks."
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