Fast bowler Kyle Abbott, who led South Africa to a 4-0 lead with a four-wicket haul in his first appearance for the side in four months, has said it's "tough" not being a regular member of the team. With the hosts resting three first-choice bowlers - Dale Steyn, Kagiso Rabada and Imran Tahir - for the dead rubber in Port Elizabeth, Abbott got a game and produced a Man-of-the-Match performance.
"It's tough not knowing when you are going to get a game," he said. "The key is to still tick the boxes at practice and when those opportunities come, there is no time for questioning out there, 'have I done the work'? Coming up against a quality batting line-up like Australia, you need to stay on top of your game even if you are not playing."
Having dominated Australia in the four games so far, Abbott said the hosts will look for more of the same in Cape Town to become the first team to whitewash Australia in a five-match ODI series.
"We can't even begin to think what it might be like on Wednesday night if it does happen. It has been phenomenal," he said. "We celebrated well on Wednesday night after winning the series and that was the big challenge today, to put in another performance knowing that the series was secured and not take our foot of the gas. We did that pretty well. Coming up to Wednesday, I don't think we will do anything differently. We will stick to what we've done that's won us four games and hopefully make it five and make some history.
Abbott also said it was a challenge dealing with the wind at his new home ground, having moved from Dolphins to Warriors.
"Rhythm was difficult with the contrasting ends," he said. "From the top end, running with the wind and downhill, you almost felt like you were going past your run-up and then from the other way, you struggled, sometimes not knowing whether you will get to the crease. It was quite a challenge. We trained for the last two days with the wind. We knew it was going to be like that."