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. Adidas Superstar Goedkoop . Peter Holland and Brad Staubitz were sent to Toronto on Saturday as the Maple Leafs traded defenceman Jesse Blacker and draft picks to the Anaheim Ducks. Adidas NMD R2 Dames . The Redskins announced Monday that the quarterback who led the team to the Super Bowl championship in the 1987 season will serve as a personnel executive. http://www.nmdtekoop.com/ultra-boost-sneakers.html . Lack made 20 saves for his third shutout of the season as the Canucks blanked the St. Louis Blues 1-0 in the first post-Olympic game for both teams night. Adidas NMD Goedkoop . The Lightning are 2-0 so far on a four-game road trip, giving the club five straight wins as the guest and improving Tampas away record this season to 11-8-2. Adidas Prophere Nederland .J. -- Marshawn Lynch said Thursday it will be good to get back to football after the Seattle quiet talking running back wrapped up his final mandatory media session of Super Bowl week. The Chicago Cubs are the clear-cut favorites to win the World Series, a feat that would end their 108-year championship drought and take a bite out of some, but not all, Las Vegas sportsbooks.The Cubs are 9-5 to win the World Series at the Westgate SuperBook, followed by the Boston Red Sox at 9-2, the Texas Rangers at 5-1 and the Los Angeles Dodgers at 7-1. The Toronto Blue Jays and Washington Nationals are each 8-1, with the San Francisco Giants and Cleveland Indians each listed at 12-1.Chicago is the worst-case scenario for the Wynn race and sportsbook, which, for the past two years, had offered a proposition wager on whether the Cubs would win the World Series in either 2016 or 2017. In March, the props odds were Yes +250 and No -300. Bettors sided heavily with Yes.Overall, three times as much money has been bet on the Cubs to win the World Series as any other team at the Wynn, including a handful of futures bets that would pay out six figures on a Chicago championship.The Cubs are a pretty substantial loss for us, not just for that prop but also for the [World Series] futures, Wynn executive director Johnny Avello said. But Im working on it. Ive got about three weeks to play around and see what I can do. The Wynn is offering the Cubs at 2-1 against the playoff field, a -240 favorite. The wiser money, Avello said, has been on the field. But the betting public is overwhelmingly on the Cubs, per usual.Station Casinos said it has taken twice as many bets on the Cubs to win the World Series as any other team. But not all of them are expected to be cashed, even if the Cubs win it all for the first time since 1908.If they winn, I bet several [bets] wont get cashed in and will be saved as mementos on the walls of many North Side Chicago homes and Cubs fans everywhere, Jason McCormick, sportsbook director for Station Casinos, said.ddddddddddddBetting on the Cubs to win the World Series has been a tradition in Las Vegas for decades. They are almost always among the most popular picks by the betting public. Bookmakers even joke about how many casinos have been built off of the Cubs World Series bets.This might be the year they catch up to us, Avello added.Dont worry, though, Las Vegas is expected to be able to withstand a Cubs championship.The Cubs are our worst liability by far, said Bob Scucci, director of race and sports for Boyd Gaming, who works out of The Orleans casino, but because they opened up with such short odds, it is not nearly as bad as it could have been. In prior years it would have been four or five times as bad. Caesars Palace said it would come out ahead if the Cubs win the World Series. The Giants are the worst-case scenario at both Caesars and Station Casinos.William Hills Nevada sportsbook said its also in good shape on the Cubs. The Giants are the books worst-case scenario, which would turn the futures pool into a break-even wash.The Rangers attracted two significant futures bets at William Hill. On Dec. 7, a bettor placed a $25,000 on Texas winning the World Series at 15-1. The bet would net $375,000. And, on Aug. 8, the book took a $20,500 bet on the Rangers at +600. The bet would net $123,000. ' ' '