South Africa are readying themselves for the first of 'three finals in a row' as they try to avoid adding one-day international series defeat to their Test disappointment against England.
Hashim Amla, who resigned the Test captaincy mid-series to concentrate on his batting under the leadership of AB de Villiers in both formats, is reluctant to contemplate the impact of losing in the ODIs too.
To avoid that fate, though, South Africa must win at Centurion on Tuesday after going 2-0 down with three to play.
Amla does not yet want to think about the prospect of another reverse.
"It would be a blow, there's no doubt about it," he said.
"In the Test matches, we had a lot of setbacks with injuries, and in the one-dayers, we haven't performed yet.
"But we're not thinking about that. We're out to win tomorrow, get some momentum for the next one and then hope to win in Cape Town as well.
"Everything starts tomorrow. It's a massive motivating factor. We've got three finals in a row, and tomorrow is the first one we have to knock off."
Amla has detected reason for some optimism in South Africa's performances in defeat at Bloemfontein last week - on Duckworth-Lewis after a storm cut short their run chase - and then Port Elizabeth on Saturday.
"I think in that last game we were pretty close," he said.
"We played some good cricket at times and it was a bit of an improvement from the first game, although even there we were still in with a shout.
"I hope we can put it all together at once, consecutively in three matches."
Amla admits South Africa would love to have the batting depth which allows England to stay on the front foot, even if they lose wickets.
"They bat very deep, and I think that allows the English team to attack throughout the game," he said.
"Because they bat to number 10, they have a bit of a cushion to keep going.
"I think Adil Rashid is batting 10, and he's got first-class hundreds galore.
"It's a really fortunate position that England are in.
"It is very important for us that, with our seven batters, we score the runs - and don't leave it for eight to 11."
South Africa's tailenders are less adept with the bat.
But Amla added: "You have to have the personnel - you can't just load it with 11 batters. That doesn't make sense.
"If you have the personnel, you can do it. But our best bowlers are playing, and our best batters are playing.
"It is a consideration I know the guys have spoken about, to try to lengthen our batting, but you can't really sacrifice your quality of bowling.
"It is a catch 22. If you have the personnel to bat deep and have a good bowling attack, like England do, then we'd love to do that."
Source: PA
