“If you take your game for granted, mother cricket will kick you on the backside,” Marco Jansen says South Africa needs to keep working hard despite success in first test against England

The South African fast bowler Marco Jansen has insisted no matter how well the first test match against England went for South Africa, the visitors won’t take anything for granted at all and will continue to work hard on their game as they go ahead in the series.

The second test between England and South Africa starts today and Marco Jansen will again have a lot of eyeballs on him, considering how much he moved the ball in the first game.

Jansen’s movement was creating a different kind of challenge for the English batsmen in the first test at Lord’s, as he is a left armer and swings the ball into the right handers from a different angle than the right arm fast bowlers. The mainstay of England’s batting, Joe Root, was trapped LBW by Jansen in the first innings and that’s the point from where South Africa got themselves on the driving seat in the test match.

Wasn’t expecting a lot of swing to be there in the first test: Marco Jansen

Talking about the first game, Jansen said he didn’t come into the game thinking that he would get a lot of movement. The gameplan was to be disciplined with the line, bowl the off stump channel and expect that an odd ball or two would nip back into the right handers to create trouble for them.

But, unexpectedly, there was a lot of swing on offer, which was why he changed his gameplan a little bit and bowled straight lines and that earned him the rewards too. Not only did Marco Jansen get a couple of wickets in both the innings each, he also played a valuable cameo for South Africa with the bat.

Marco Jansen missed out from his maiden Test fifty – 48 in 79 balls. A brilliant innings by Marco! pic.twitter.com/9V43jKtpCZ

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— Mufaddal Vohra (@mufaddal_vohra) August 19, 2022

The 21-year old is, however, committed to keep working hard and not to get carried away by the success. “If you take your game for granted, mother cricket will kick you on the backside,” Jansen told the press on the eve of the second test.

We have found an absolute gem in Marco Jansen!

— Kooks (@Kookie_Kuhle) August 18, 2022