Centurion, Jan 25: Morne Morkel emerged as South Africa’s lethal weapon at the end of the ODI series against India with 12 wickets to his credit at an economy rate of 3.70. The pacer spoke to the media after receiving the much coveted Man-of-the-Series award.

Excerpts from the interview

On being relentlessly accurate through the summer

Thank you very much and a special thank you for the Centurion crowd today. They came out and were behind the boys. We needed [the support]. So to the boys of Pretoria, thank you very much.

On his fitness and readiness to contribute whenever called upon by his captain

That more or less is sort of the game plan that we have for me - to run-up […] and be aggressive and [hit the] deck hard and [it] works out quite nicely for South Africa.

On his bowling rhythm being at its best

Yeah, things came together for me in Durban and from there you know, rhythm kicked in. Today I missed a little bit but I am happy [overall]. It’s been good for me. Now to go forward to India for the World Cup. So yeah, I am looking forward to it

On Yusuf Pathan giving the team some tense moments in a largely comfortable encounter

Definitely, you know. Yusuf [Pathan] [was] a teammate with me at Rajasthan [Royals] - remember the innings he played in Mumbai? But [it was] good cricket at the end of the day, never take anything away from that. I am just glad the boys held their nerve today and I look forward to [the World Cup].