It's just one of those patches where you're scratching: Bavuma

Temba Bavuma is having a horror of a World Cup. Surely, his side has dominated the World Cup with an iron fist, but on a personal front, this is anything but satisfying. With eight South African batters having an average of over 40 in the World Cup, Bavuma has scored only 22 runs per dismissal - an indicator of where he stands at the moment.

However, Bavuma is not too concerned about that, taking solace from how he has contributed to the partnerships. “Yeah, you always want to be making contributions. Like you said, the other batters are smashing it at the moment. I think I take comfort in the fact that I've been involved in some partnerships with Quinton [De Kock] up front,” Bavuma said ahead of the match against India in Kolkata on Sunday.

“Obviously, you want to extend it. I guess from my side, maybe it's just one of those patches again where you're kind of scratching, but I think you've got to keep that belief that the opportunity will be there for me to make a big play within the team. I think that's where my head is at, but a lot of comfort in the fact that we've been getting starts in those first ten overs and obviously, with the guys being in form, they've been able to exploit that and play the way that they've played.”

With six wins already, South Africa are approaching the penultimate league game of the season with a lot of confidence, having an NRR of +2.290. It has been made possible by the uncanny effort of Quinton de Kock at the top and then Aiden Markram and Heinrich Klaasen’s solid showing in the death overs.

“I think from the start of the tournament, we spoke about just trying to take it game by game, staying as present as we can. I believe we've done that very well. Obviously, like you've just said, the noise around the team has grown, but I think it's for us to control our spaces within the team. 

“But I guess also draw energy from, I guess, the positive sentiment that's floating in and around the team. Probably hard for us to keep going as the underdogs, but I think in terms of the team, everything still stays the same. We don't see ourselves any different. We'll still take it day by day, game by game,” the South African skipper added.

The Indian cricket team now seems unstoppable at the moment, having shut down Sri Lanka for a paltry 55 in the previous league game. The quartet of Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Shami, Mohammed Siraj, and Kuldeep Yadav have made the lives of the opposition batters a literal hell. Are South Africa afraid of the same? Bavuma doesn’t concur, though. 

“No, I think, I mean, you respect the strength and the threats that they bring. It's obviously a world-class bowling attack in their condition, so they know everything about these conditions. So as bad as we do now, we're going to have to have our A games up come tomorrow. But when I say we stick to our processes, we prepare as well as we can. We try to cover all our bases, make sure that we're not surprised by anything, and get ourselves into a space where we can play our best cricket,” the 33-year-old added.

“Like I said, the three-up front, Bumrah, Siraj, as well as Shami, are guys who can exploit anything with that new ball. If there's swing, if there's nip, they can exploit that quite attacking bowlers as well, so I guess with that, there comes an opportunity to score.

“But you really got to be on your A game with that new ball. Then obviously, they've got their spinners in the middle who really hold the game; in Yadav as well as Jadeja, Yadav has that ability to take wickets. So, I think the way we've played spin has been good. I think there will be a big expectation for us to do that.

“They obviously only have five bowlers, so they can, I guess, be put under pressure if one of their bowlers is not on their day. But yeah, I think you've got to probably respect their bowling attack a little bit more than the other bowling attacks. And understand that you're going to have to play good cricket for longer periods,” Bavuma concluded.