Follow UsSouth Africa bounced back from their loss to India in an emphatic manner, getting the better of Afghanistan by five wickets in Ahmedabad to ensure they finished at the second spot on the points table. With seven wins from nine games, they now carry a lot of confidence for the semi-final against Australia at the Eden Gardens.
The major takeaway for them was the ease with which they chased down the total after being branded as a batting-first-dominant side. Even against India in the last encounter, South Africa had chased but faltered. Now back on track, skipper Temba Bavuma stated that they want to make winning a habit and carry the same level of confidence to the World Cup semi-final.
“Winning is a habit; we want to take that momentum through. We batted second, and to get over the line in that manner, that's going to put a lot of confidence,” Bavuma said in the post-match presentation.
“We'll take the win, take the confidence and the momentum that comes with it. We'd like to be playing here again. We have a big hurdle that we have to get over first, that is Australia in Kolkata,” the South African skipper, who batted with a sore leg, stated.
Even though wickets were falling at the other end, Rassie van der Dussen batted with a lot of patience to score 76, which helped South Africa get over the line. RvD seemed very happy with his own personal contribution, especially because it came while chasing.
“We were happy with bowling first, we would have chased anyway. We knew they are a quality bowling attack and we wanted to put ourselves in a difficult situation. There are one or two things we can tweak but happy with how the run-chase went,” man of the match van der Dussen added.
South Africa became the second team to qualify for the semi-finals, but after the thrashing that they suffered at the hands of India on Sunday, their tactics have come under the scanner. Thrice they chased but ended up losing two and barely managed to win one against Pakistan. But after the win against Afghanistan, they now have their confidence at a new level.
“In any case, there has to be someone who plays the anchor role. We had a lovely platform with Quinny and Temba giving us a solid platform, and that made it easy for me. Happy to play that role tonight and we have some good partnerships in the middle; happy to get across the finish line.
“It’s funny when you do something so well and the other part is not so good; people say you are doing that badly. We were on the 50-50 mark in terms of chasing, so we wanted to put ourselves in a difficult situation and test ourselves going forward.
“Going into the semi-final, this is what we wanted to do, and it worked out well. We have taken a lot of learning from the last two games. Kolkata was a lot drier and a lot lower. We know what to expect going into the semi-final. Hopefully, if we get back here again, we'll put in a similar performance,” the South African No.3 said.