Follow UsEngland and South Africa will take on each other in the ICC World Cup clash in Mumbai following two disheartening upsets from the hands of Afghanistan and Netherlands, respectively. England, in particular, have found themselves in a doldrum and need an inspiring win to bring the campaign back on track, which had gone awry from the very beginning.
With Ben Stokes returning to the team, they have a perfect opportunity to put the Delhi loss behind them and come back with new vigour. England skipper Jos Buttler stated that they took some time to reflect on the loss, but now they have moved on from it to start afresh.
“We had a few days to let the defeat sink in and moved on and focused; we had some good conversations, and the energy and hunger around practice last night was very high,” Buttler said in the pre-match press conference in Mumbai.
“I think trying to read conditions and get a handle on what may or may not happen is always something you're trying to do as a team and as an individual and get a read on how it might play. But always, the skill is to react on the day, absolutely. You can go in with preconceived ideas and it's not sort of committing to them fully.
“You've got to communicate well as a team, understand as an individual how the pitch is playing, what the conditions are like. They're all parts of the game that are vitally important. So, you try and gather as much information as you can before, and history is history, and it's about the game in front of you.”
Buttler was pleasantly surprised by the way the Netherlands took on South Africa and beat them to make the World Cup wide open.
“Yeah, surprised. I think you're always surprised when those kind of things happen. No disrespect to the Netherlands. They played a fantastic game of cricket and deserved to win it. So, I think you always have to give credit to the opposition in that instance. The bookies' favorites, I'm sure, would have been South Africa on the day. But that's why sport is fantastic. It throws up these upsets. And everyone's on the same field trying to compete and win the game and you have to give credit to the opposition,” Buttler said.
Even though South Africa couldn’t close out the Netherlands in Dharamsala, they are still one of the strongest sides in the competition, having beaten Sri Lanka and Australia by a margin of over 100 runs. With a strong batting core and a terrific pace bowling unit, South Africa have their strengths sorted, hence, Buttler doesn’t want to take them lightly.
“Yeah, I think they've been they've been playing some really good cricket. I think, obviously, the top six is a very strong top six, and I think pace with the ball is one of their strengths. It's something I think both teams like as well. We have pace in both attacks and both teams like pace on the ball, so as well it should be a really fascinating contest. They're a really good team. You always expect a tough challenge when you play against South Africa, and it's going to be a brilliant game,” the England skipper added.