By Fakir Hassen, IANS,
Johannesburg : Former South African cricket supremo Ali Bacher called the national team’s historic win over Australia in the Perth Test as the “most wonderful moment” in the country’s cricket history even as tributes continued to pour in for skipper Graeme Smith and co.
South Africa Sunday chased down 414 in the first of the three Test matches against Australia to claim the second highest run chase in Test history.
“To win (against Australia), and especially on their home ground, remains the best feeling you can get in cricket and is undoubtedly the number one achievement,” Bacher told the Afrikaans daily Beeld here Monday.
“They (South Africans) are currently far better than the Australians and I am convinced that this could be the first South African team to get a series victory (there),” Bacher said.
“The (South African) squad must now just remain focused. The team is emotionally very strong and no longer scared of the Aussies.”
Cricket South Africa chief executive Gerald Majola described the South African victory as his “best Christmas present”.
“Graeme Smith and his team have ensured that I have a wonderful Christmas,” an emotional Majola said here.
“We worked on this for the past four years. It requires blood, sweat, and tears to achieve a victory like this. It’s not something that happened out of the blue.”
“I believe this is just the start of a wonderful era waiting for South African cricket with a very special group of players,” Majola said.