Veteran South African all-rounder Shaun Pollockadmitted he was in the final phase of his cricketing career, but felt there wasstill a lot of cricket left in him.
"If you consider my nine-year-long career anddivide it in three stages, definitely I am now standing in the final phase ofit. But I feel there is still a lot of cricket left in me," the 31-year-oldformer captain said.
Pollock said he was feeling "less pressure"since Grame Smith took over the mantle of captaincy from him after the 2003World Cup.
"The responsibility is definitely less now. I tendto focus more on my own game and use my energy to guide younger players,"Pollock, who made his Test debut in 1995-96 against England at Centurion, toldreporters.
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Pollock, who is yet to play a match at the EdenGardens, said he along with the young members of the squad, was looking forwardto experience the passion of the crowd at the "real home of cricket"during the second and final Test.
Pollock, 24-run short of making a triple (3000 runs and300 wickets) in Test, said he would be happy to achieve the milestone here.
About the pitch condition at Eden, Pollock said it waslikely to be somewhat the same as that of Kanpur.
Noting that the India-Pakistan one day internationalmatch was played on the same pitch just a fortnight ago, Pollock said "Itmust have been watered after that. I expect the wicket to be somewhat similar tothe one we played on in the last match."
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To a question on his batting, the Port Elizabeth-borncricketer, who has amassed 2976 runs along with 351 wickets in 86 Tests, said"I am pretty happy with what I have done. My foremost responsibility isbowling. Batting has come on over the years. Now I enjoy it."
Pollock, who drew confidence from the bowlers'performance on the final day of the Kanpur Test to take six wickets of theIndian innings for 65 runs, disagreed with Indian batsman Virender Sehwag thatSouth African bowlers had followed a negative line.
"We had our own strategy and (have) our way ofdefining negative bowling. I don't think we followed a negative line," hesaid.
Pollock said the team was looking forward to put up agood display in the final Test after gaining confidence from Kanpur.
"We take satisfaction from what happened there.The team is feeling better," he said, but cautioned "You have to startfrom a scratch," in a new game.
The former captain considered the presence of youngsters in the visiting side to be advantageous. "Sometimes experience can be a problem. It's good that a number of talented young players are coming up.
PTI
