Follow UsSouth Africa have had a busy 24 hours, thanks to the much-talked-about ICC Champions Trophy 2025 scheduling. The Proteas played their final group game against England on Saturday and left for Dubai on Sunday, in case they had to play India in the semis. The Men in Blue had refused to travel to Pakistan and are playing all their games in Dubai, including the knockouts.
Their opponents for the semis were only confirmed after the last group game on Sunday, and as a result both South Africa and Australia had to travel from Pakistan to Dubai for the first semi-final on March 4 (Tuesday). India got the better of New Zealand and are now scheduled to play Australia in the semis, while the Proteas arrived back to Pakistan on March 3 (Monday) for their game against the Black Caps on March 5 (Wednesday).
Those 18 hours turned out to be hectic for South Africa, but wicketkeeper-batter Heinrich Klaasen isn’t too worried. "We knew that there was a big possibility that we might have to fly up and down. It's not ideal for the bodies, but at least we had some time to get out and walk around and get loose and just had some nice steak, to be fair. We knew it's gonna happen and it's part of the scheduling so two teams had to do it, and unfortunately, we were one of them.
"We haven't really travelled a lot in this competition. It was obviously just a crazy 18 hours. NZ played a game and had to travel six hours after the game. We had, at least, that off time and we could stretch our legs and recover as well before we had to come back. I think our bodies will be in a better position than their bodies but it's part of professional cricket at this moment. You just have to suck it up and go back and see if you can recover well and just get the job done at the end of the day," he said.
The South Africa-New Zealand game is happening in Lahore and the winner will only have to travel to Dubai for the final if India manage to beat Australia. If not, the grand finale will happen in Lahore. "The conditions are quite different. The conditions in Pakistan are quite nice to bat on, so the bowlers have a harder job to do. In Dubai, the wickets are slow, but you still have to play good cricket."
"Regardless of where you play, you still need to beat two good teams. If we beat New Zealand and India beat Australia, we still have to beat India there. Or if Australia beat them, we still have to beat a good Australian team to win this trophy. Regardless of where you play, you just have to play good cricket."
South Africa also made it to the semi-finals of the 2023 ODI World Cup before finishing as runners-up in the 2024 T20 World Cup. Klaasen is hoping they go one step above this time around. "The nerves are a little bit less because we have a little bit more experience in the semi-final department now. We're playing good cricket.
"Since I've been around from 2018, we have played some incredible cricket. We just had some bad luck here and there and one or two games that didn't go our way, but we've been playing good cricket. It's the rewards that we're seeing now. The boys are holding a little bit more composure in the bigger moments in the game. Hopefully, we can get into another final. We've got the experience now. The big boys need to step up on Wednesday."