South Africa captain Temba Bavuma has warned his side not to underestimate Australia when the two sides square off in the semi-final of the Cricket World Cup on Thursday.
They finished second in the 10-team league table, having won seven of their nine games. They will play in the final four on Thursday in Kolkata.
During that run, they beat the Australians by 134 runs at Lucknow four weeks ago.
Australia has won this tournament five times and has now won seven in a row.
“A lot of people believe that this could be the year that we see ourselves in the final,” Bavuma, who remains doubtful to play the semi-final due his hamstring injury, told reporters.
“We’d like nothing better than that. But we also respect the game of cricket. We’re not coming up against a Mickey Mouse team. Australia have a lot of experience and confidence in knockout games like this, so we’ve got to respect that.”
The worst World Cup exit for South Africa was when they lost to Australia in the semi-finals in 1999. The match in Birmingham ended in a tie, but Australia went through because they finished higher in their group.
An earlier match between the teams in the Caribbean in 2007 ended in a very easy win for Australia.
Bavuma said that his team is still feeling confident as they get ready for the knockout game.
“From a skill point of view, from a physical point of view, the guys are quite confident,” said Bavuma.
“There’s a sense of calmness within the team and obviously the normal level of anxiety that you would expect of going into the game tomorrow.”
He added: “But I think we’ll take a lot of confidence with our performances up until this point.”
Bavuma said that he plans to play Keshav Maharaj and Tabraiz Shamsi, two top-level spin bowlers, at Kolkata’s Eden Gardens.
“Obviously, Keshav and Shamsi. We have Aiden (Markram) as well, who also gives us an option there. Then I think it’s just finalising in terms of the three seamers, who that may be,” he said.
Maharaj is an orthodox left-arm bowler who has 14 wickets in nine games, while Shamsi is a left-arm wrist-spinner who has seven wickets in just three games.
As a wicketkeeper-batsman, Quinton de Kock led the way with 591 runs, second only to India’s Virat Kohli. Bavuma praised de Kock for his work.
“Quinton’s been magnificent for us,” said Bavuma.
“At one point he was the leading World Cup scorer as well. Knowing Quinton, I don’t think he’s really paying much attention to all of that. I think his focus is on contributing as best as he can for the team.”
That’s it for De Kock, who is 30 years old. He is done with one-day international cricket.
Bavuma said that South Africa’s cricketers are getting ideas from the Springboks’ win of their second straight Rugby World Cup last month as they try to win the world title in India.
“I think to a large degree we look at them in awe, the Springboks and how they’ve gone about their back-to-back wins within the World Cup,” said Bavuma.
“Obviously, the way they won it this year with the knockout games being quite close and again how that resilience, how that do-or-die attitude came through.
“That’s what we’ve been speaking about as a team that when the crunch moment comes, when the pressure moments come, we come together as a team and we find a way to get over the line.”
Photo by Vipin Pawar/Shutterstock
