/ Ryan ten doeschate / 27 February 2011 / Leave a Comment 
Ryan ten doeschate's century against England was one of the highlights of the tournament so far
"Reaching my hundred was one of the sweetest moments of my career and I was on top of the world at the half-way stage. I've really struggled leading up
to this match and only found my rhythm on the day before the match. That performance has created a lot of interest in me and I've done an incredible amount of
press stuff this week."
Tuesday's Centurion Ryan ten doeschate on meeting his hero, gunning for Sachin Tendulkar's wicket and unprecedented media attention on himself.
The World Cup is up and running and some teams have put some early markers out. I think Australia have been wrongly undersetimated in the lead up to the tournament but have wasted no time in showing how good they are when the World Cup proper comes around. Pakistan are the other team who have shown a position of early strength with a narrowish but ultimately convincing win over co-hosts Sri Lanka.
Our first week has been fascinating and while we were ultimately very disappointed about losing to England, the team are as confident as I've ever seen them. It was a good all-round performance from us and people have certainly taken note of how impressive our performance was in pushing England so close. In my pre-match article I spoke about standing up to the big teams and really going at them and that's something
we felt we did well on Tuesday.
Our post-match debrief centred around the execution of our bowling plans and this is the area where we missed the chance to crownn a good performance with what would have been a remarkable victory. We know that we were below par with the ball and if the batters can give the team another chance by posting a decent score, I have no doubt we will see it home. Having said that, it is important to note that quality players like Andrew Strauss and Kevin Pietersen are severe on anything remotely loose.
Reaching my hundred was one of the sweetest moments of my career and I was on top of the world at the half-way stage. I've really struggled leading upto this match and only found my rhythm on the day before the match. That performance has created a lot of interest in me and I've done an incredible amount of press stuff this week. The highlight for me was being invited to discuss my knock with Sir Viv Richards on a live Indian cricket show. He always comes across as a good bloke but he exceded every level of my expectations and it was truly great to see how someone like him is so humble and genuinely friendly.
The West Indies pose the next challenge for us on Monday. Dwayne Bravo's injury is a real shame and a big loss for the tournament because he's such a colourful guy as well as such a great player. I guess that will place extra emphasis on Chris Gayle and keeping him quiet will be our top priority. But we are are certainly full of confidence and I expect everyone to be up for it on Tuesday. We had a run out on the field today and the stadium is pretty special.
We only have two days between the West indies match and our next fixture, which is against South Africa in Chandigar. For obvious reasons its a game I'm looking
forward to and in particular to playing against my childhood hero Jacques Kallis. Apart from him, I am probably most excited about playing against Sachin Tendulkar. His name invariably pops up in all interviews and the hype surrounding him here is too difficult to articulate. I can't see myself getting another chance to play against him so it will be a big moment for all of us. All the bowlers will be queing up for the honour of bagging the 'big fish' of the World Cup.
But before we get ahead of ourselves and worry about Kallis and Tendulkar we need to follow up our opening performance with a good showing against the West Indies.
We'll be sticking to our processes and will keep pursuing a brave style of play. We really believe that if we can replicate the performance we put in against England, we can actually get over the line this time.
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