SA eager to put Jo'burg show behind

“I believe that every bad experience, you just turn it around and work it positively for you,” the Protea coach said on Monday. “I know this team feels really bad and really hurt about the way we lost on Saturday, but if you work through that and you really analyse what has happened, it can only make you a stronger person and a stronger team. I think rather it happened now and let’s go through that than later. One day when you have achieved something, you can look back and remember that day and how we felt on that day. That will make it even sweeter if you are successful after that.

“It’s not difficult at all to pick yourself up after a result like that,” he went on. “India have shown that they can do it. There is no question why we can’t do it. It’s all a question of picking yourself up where you understand we batted poorly in that innings. We know what we have done wrong, we have to go and rectify it.”

India are without four first-eleven players, including Sachin Tendulkar. “We believe in what we are,” Van Zyl said, refusing to dwell on the opposition. “We are a strong enough team. Whether India is a full team or a depleted team, it doesn’t matter. It’s about what we believe in ourselves and how we feel, and if we feel that we are a good side, India being depleted or not is not an issue here.”

Van Zyl chose not to attach too much importance to the spin of the coin. “If we lose the toss, we can’t go back and say we have lost the toss, therefore we can’t win.”