Proteas can make up for monsoon dampener on World Cup warm-ups, says Simons

With both their warm-up games for the Cricket World Cup affected by rain, Proteas bowling coach Eric Simons reckoned that whatever preparation they haven't been able to get through, they'll have to complete in training.

The Proteas' match against Afghanistan was abandoned without a ball being bowled, while the rubber against New Zealand was lost via Duckworth and Lewis Method.

Speaking two days ahead of the Proteas' World Cup opener against 1996 champions Sri Lanka, Simons admitted that playing their friendlies during the back end of the monsoon season in India was obviously not ideal.

His attitude was that not only were they not the only team to suffer disruptions to their preparations, but that the kinks would have to be ironed out in practice.

"It was disappointing for us, we actually took a lot out of the bowling against New Zealand," Simons explained.

"It was very much around the plans and what we wanted to do, so we didn't get caught up too much in the result. There were some good things and some stuff we have to work on.

"To me, certainly from my discipline, it would have been nice to have two games, to have the game against Afghanistan, to have done the things we did and take them to a more match-ready situation with New Zealand.

"But it's one of those things. All the teams seem to have faced it and it would have been nice to have two games. We didn't have them, now we must just move on.

"It just means that our practice will have a different focus just in terms of what you can do or can't do - it'll be a little more match-specific preparation."

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By the sounds of it, some of that different focus was zeroed in on in the practice