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Despite a dearth of Test cricket compared to the Big Three and several months between fixtures, South Africa, at times, took their place in the format for granted and in so doing lost some of their stature. That was the startling admission of stand-in captain Faf du Plessis ahead of the two-Test series against New Zealand, which sees South Africa competing from No. 7 on the rankings after starting the year on top.We had a nice culture because we were playing well and then you can almost just leave it be. Now, we want to challenge each other more and that goes right from the top, from the coaching staff to the guys carrying drinks on the field. We are trying to challenge each other more to be better and to not accept mediocrity, du Plessis said. We have fallen in a few traps where we play so much cricket, you just rock up and play another game of cricket but playing for South Africa is a huge honour and its about challenging each other to be better and to get back to being No. 1.The ladder back to the top cannot be climbed immediately but any margin of victory for South Africa over New Zealand will see them move up to fifth spot and for du Plessis, thats a start. Weve got series at home now which can make a difference and which we will need to win. Weve got New Zealand now and Sri Lanka later this year and in both those series, if we play well, we should win, he said.If South Africa hope to turn things around, they have to start by exorcising the demons that discovered them in India late last year. We suffered a bit; we had a few ghosts after the Indian series and that was most of the guys. India was tough for us a batting unit and it left a few scars, du Plessis said. Now its a new season, we can focus on the strength of our batting again. The only way we can do that is by putting runs on the board.Du Plessis was one of the players that struggled most. In seven innings in India, he recorded three ducks and only made more than 10 runs once. Although he managed one fifty in five innings against England at home, he was dropped for the final Test at Centurion. Now, he returns as captain with a point to prove. I had been very successful up until that point, where I averaged close to 50 in Test cricket so to look to dramatically change things would be wrong, he said. But its about going back to my game plans and what worked really well. If you have good form, you can just run with it and score as many runs as possible. If you are on the other side of that, you need to fight to get back in. In the England series, we were fighting to get back into form after the Indian series. Its an important series for me personally to try and make a statement in that middle order and be a powerful batter in our line-up.Batting was only half South Africas problem though. They were also deficient with ball in hand last summer, during which they were without Dale Steyn and Vernon Philander. The pair have returned from their respective injuries and du Plessis believes it will make a big difference to South Africas ability to compete. We saw when they werent there against England that you cannot replace an experienced attack. Take Southee and Boult out of New Zealand or Anderson and Broad out of England and its just a different team, he said. Theres no substitute in Test cricket for guys who can bowl relentlessly in good areas for a long period of time. Young bowlers can come in and do well in any other format but, especially in Test cricket, experience is really important.New Zealand have Southee and Boult in their ranks, to complement an inform batting line-up in which Tom Latham, Ross Taylor, Kane Williamson and BJ Watling all recently scored centuries in Zimbabwe, which should make for what du Plessis predicts will be an evenly matched series, but what he hopes will put South Africa ahead is their new approach. After a pre-series team-building camp in which South Africa promised to form a new culture driven by a lot more honesty, they also took a decision to be more assertive on the field.We are a very resilient team and sometimes we waited for the chips to be down and then we came back and played really good cricket. We did that extremely well and there was a time when we were the only team that could stick it out and fight back and draw, du Plessis said, making reference to matches like the Adelaide, Wanderers and Colombo Tests, where South Africa forced draws from what seemed like lost causes.Now South Africa want to move from that defensive style of play to a more attacking one. For us to move forward as a team, we need to throw the first punch more and play a more aggressive brand of cricket, du Plessis said but tempered it a touch. Aggressive never means doing anything stupid. We understand what we need to do. The basics in Test cricket will always remain the most important thing. Its just more a mindset to be a little bit more attacking. Cheap Air Max 95 Shoes . Anthony Calvillo, through 20 CFL seasons, was frequently invincible and largely stoic in the heat of competition. But underneath the professional exterior he was, and is, compellingly human. Clearance Air Max 95 . 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The plans are in place, so now all heavyweight world titleholder Anthony Joshua has to do is win to make a much-anticipated megafight with former world champion Wladimir Klitschko a reality.Englands Joshua will defend his belt against American Eric Molina, a gargantuan underdog, on Saturday (Showtime, 5:30 p.m. ET) at the Manchester Arena in Manchester, England, and if he is successful, Joshua-Klitschko is on.The fight is agreed to and, pending a Joshua victory, would take place on April 29 at Wembley Stadium in London, Klitschko manager Bernd Boente told ESPN on Monday.Boente and Joshua promoter Eddie Hearn of Matchroom Boxing have been working on the fight since Tyson Fury, who is dealing with substance-abuse and mental-health issues, pulled out of an Oct. 29 rematch with Klitschko and vacated his title belts.We have reached an agreement for the fight and everything is fine. Eddie and I have had very smooth and constructive negotiations from the beginning, Boente said of the bout that would be for Joshuas title as well as one of the belts Fury vacated. The only thing that is still being negotiated is a few details Eddie and I working on with the stadium, but it looks very positive. We have a deal together, but the most important step now is that Anthony Joshua wins his title fight on Saturday.Klitschko, who once had Joshua as a sparring partner in his training camp, and Boente plan to be ringside in Manchester. If Joshua wins, Joshua-Klitschko could be announced after the fight, Boente said.Eddie and myself are co-promoters and we are working on everything together every step of the way, Boente said. We are discussing certain things [about the announcement] and hope we can announce it then or next week. We are still discussing how to do it, but we dont want to be too premature. Joshua still has to fight, but if he wins, the fight with Wladimir is one of the biggest fights in years.A fight between Joshua, a major star in England, and Ukraines Klitschko, who has sold out stadiums across Germany, where he has fought ffor most of his career, indeed would be the biggest bout in the heavyweight division.ddddddddddddIt would pit Olympic super heavyweight gold medalists -- Klitschko in 1996 and Joshua in 2012 -- in a fight that many believe would challenge the British attendance record set by the rematch between super middleweight titleholder Carl Froch and British rival George Groves, who drew some 80,000 to Wembley Stadium in May 2014 for a fight Hearn also promoted.Its not important when we announce it. Our deal is made, Boente said. We just have to sign it and wait until Anthony Joshua has done his work and hopefully beaten Molina, but Molina is a tough guy. He looked pretty good until he got knocked out by Deontay Wilder.Wilder defended his heavyweight belt against Molina by ninth-round knockout in June 2015, although Molina has won both of his fights since by knockout.What if Joshua (17-0, 17 KOs) were to lose to Molina (25-3, 19 KOs) on Saturday?If it happens, then we have to deal with it, Boente said.But he added that Klitschko (64-4, 54 KOs), who will turn 41 in March and will have been out of the ring since Fury ended his nearly 10-year title reign in November 2015, thought Joshua would come through the fight in strong fashion and that he looked forward to fighting in England.Klitschko has fought once previously in England, a seventh-round knockout of Monte Barrett on a Lennox Lewis undercard in 2000. It was Klitschkos final fight before winning his first world title three months later.Wladimir is fine that the fight is in the U.K. because he loves the challenge and he loves that everybody in the stadium will be against him, Boente said.Boente added that Joshua, 27, and Klitschko have agreed to have drug testing for the fight to be overseen by the Las Vegas-based Voluntary Anti-Doping Association, which was overseeing drug testing for Fury-Klitschko II when Fury twice tested positive for cocaine. Cheap Jerseys China NFL Jerseys China NFL Jerseys Wholesale Discount Basketball Jerseys Cheap NHL Jerseys Authentic Cheap Baseball Jerseys Free Shipping Cheapest College Jerseys Sale Cheap Football Jerseys China Nike NFL Jerseys Canada Wholesale NHL Jerseys From China MLB Jerseys Outlet Canada Wholesale NBA Jerseys Canada Store Cheap Soccer Jerseys China Cheap Authentic Jerseys Canada ' ' '