Bracewell146;s psychological warfare

But he said the team would be using lessons learned in overcoming Pakistani pace bowler Mohammad Sami in last month8217;s series which New Zealand won.

8220;I was told that Mohammad Sami had a psychological grip over us, now he8217;s seeing a psychologist,8221; Bracewell said.

8220;If you do get to that position you8217;ve got to work on a strategy to overcome it. That8217;s what we did with Sami, how we get under his skin and combat what he did.

8220;We reduced him to a mere mortal which he hadn8217;t been in the past, and we have to try and do the same here.8221;

Bracewell had a terse response to any suggestions New Zealand would find it hard to recover in this series from their opening defeat. 8220;I don8217;t count anything by history. We lost one game and we8217;ve got five to go. We lost one against Pakistan as well, and the perception was the world had fallen on our heads then.8221;

However, the South Africans believe they can knock Australia off their perch and become the dominant team in the world one-day cricket, coach Eric Simons said today.

8220;It8217;s a goal for the guys to stay focused on,8221; Simons said.

The South African coach said after defeating New Zealand last week in the opening match of their five-match series, the Proteas were now looking to inflict a heavy series defeat.