Follow UsComing into the Afghanistan encounter in the ongoing ICC Cricket World Cup 2023, South Africa had a great record while batting first, but the same couldn’t have been said about their performance while chasing. While they lost to Netherlands and India while chasing, Pakistan had them on the mat for a long time.
When they were pushed to bat second in Ahmedabad on Friday, it was an opportunity for them to test the waters, and they came out with flying colours, securing a comprehensive victory. Rassie Van der Dussen, who played a key role in the run chase, stated that they wanted to test themselves out under lights and would have bowled first anyway if they had won the toss.
“Yeah, definitely, I think coming into this match, we wanted to put ourselves in that situation so if we won the toss, we would have bowled anyway because we wanted to put ourselves in that situation, knowing that they've got a really strong spin attack especially,” Van der Dussen said in the post-match press conference.
“The win-loss ratio looks pretty good in our favour when we bat first and I think it's pretty much 50-50 when we chase. The risk I suppose you run is that if there's a due then you're going to have to bowl with a dew and there was a bit of dew tonight. Made the wicket play pretty well, especially since not all teams have the spin resources these guys have.
“So, we knew when the seamer came on to bowl, Naveen [ul-Haq], the wicket played really nicely, came onto the bat really well and we saw those shots, Andile [Phehlukwayo] played off him. We knew we could wait for that and we could play pretty well because there's a bit damp out there.”
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Temba Bavuma hasn’t had the greatest of the tournaments so far and to add insult to injury, he pulled up a hamstring against Afghanistan. Even though reports are not out yet, he could be a doubt for their semi-final against Australia. Throughout the match he was struggling on the field and the same was also on show during batting as well. While Rassie Van Der Dussen added that it is not an ideal scenario, he lavished praise on his skipper for the character he has shown.
“It's not ideal, obviously. I suppose I'll have to assess how it is tomorrow. He was obviously struggling a bit but the type of character Temba is, he wanted to stay out there. That did give him the option to go off for a period and come back for a period, so he can open the batting. But not once did he say no, he's going to go off and let the other guys bat.
“He wanted us to chase, he wanted us in that situation and even though he was on a half a leg there, he was still keen to go up front and see off the new ball and play the guys there so now the type of character is - I think you'll be, we get to go on Thursday - luckily we've got a few days and yeah we'll see what happens.
“But again, I'll reiterate like our squad system has been so good, so obviously if he's not there like a guy like Reeza [Hendricks] has been obviously when he got the opportunities, he put his hand up and he's at training he's been brilliant and in terms of conditioning and in the gym and everything attitude everything he's been brilliant so we know we have a really capable replacement if it's needed,” RVD added.