Dubai: South African skipper Graeme Smith feels that the fifth and final one-day performance against Pakistan was the best from his players.
"It was our best allround performance though it was a crunch game. I am really proud of the spirit with which we played it. We came out with a positive outlook and looked relaxed and posted a really good total. Even when we wobbled my boys came out and backed their skills," remarked Smith.
"The wicket played well and we mixed things up. Each time Jacques (Kallis) came out for a spell he contributed with a wicket or by keeping tight to stop partnerships. There were lot of lessons learned and we got the reward tonight," he added.
When asked whether the disappearance of Pakistan wicketkeeper Zulqarnain Haider had affected the Pakistan team and made things easy for his team?, Smith said: "It did not come into our consideration at all. We were focused on playing our brand of cricket today.
Big boost
"Learning our lessons from the past two games we put up a really good performance. We did not ponder about what Pakistan is thinking about."
Does he consider this victory as a big boost before the oncoming World Cup?
"I don't want to be predicting about World Cup, especially give statements now because there is still lots cricket to be played. I think we have taken some giant steps forward since winter.
Eight guys made their debut against Pakistan in one day cricket in this series. Lot of my boys was also travelling with the national side to these conditions for the first time."Smith also candidly admitted that his team missed many opportunities.
"We could have won the series five-nil had we been more clinical in our approach. Our victory is not due to a few individual performances but due to my squad performing at their best as a whole. We like to build on this during the oncoming India series."
