Woolmer not carried away by win

Despite beating the number one side in the world, Pakistan coach Bob Woolmer was not prepared to get carried away on the eve of the World Cup.

Pakistan beat South Africa by seven wickets in their warm-up match in Trinidad, but Woolmer said he would be taking the results lightly.

“It’s a 13-a-side game. We need to win when the real matches start,” he said.

“Because, as I see it, we need at least five wins before we get to the knockout stage of the tournament and this would be against really good sides – which means a tremendous amount of work has to go into our game.

“I am not worried about the Pakistani team. I think we have a good team and, once the players get going, we will do well.

“We have had a good run here and what the guys need to do is to keep up the intensity and build on it as we move on.”

His South African counterpart Mickey Arthur was in a similar state of mind, refusing to panic after the loss.

“There is absolutely no panic. This was just a practice match. We are happy that the guys had a good run,” he said.

“We had some concerns with the pitch but the umpires said it was okay, so we continued to play.

“We did not want to risk having a player like Kallis getting injured before the tournament.

“We did not put up the score we wanted, which was at least 220. I am, however, confident in the ability of the players and I am sure we will get better pitches as the tournament goes on.

“The bowlers had a good workout and the only area of concern for us at the moment is the top order.

“We have to get Kallis, Smith, de Villiers and Gibbs into some sort of form and, once this happens, we are going to reach very far in this tournament.”