A shock defeat and hours of travel later, the cricketers from South Africa battled the challenging conditions and trained for a couple of hours at the Wankhede Stadium on Thursday afternoon, ahead of their marquee World Cup fixture against England.
After two convincing victories against Sri Lanka and Australia, South Africa seemed to be flying high in the tournament before the Dutch clipped its wings in Dharamshala a couple of days back. And after some soul-searching, South Africa plans to focus on three ‘R’s - refocusing, restructuring and realigning - to bring its campaign back on track.
Over the next few days, South Africa will play some of the toughest opponents - including England, Bangladesh, Pakistan and New Zealand - and the side hopes to learn from its mistakes and put up clinical performances ahead.
“It’s about staying in the moment,” Keshav Maharaj, one of the key members of the unit, said. “We need to be a bit more clinical in terms of how we go about it. It’s about refocusing, restructuring and realigning - we have done some really good work thus far and it’s about building on those positives…”
ALSO READ | Shreevats Goswami announces retirement from first-class cricket
The team management had a look at the surface soon after reaching the Wankhede Stadium and over the next few hours, batting coach JP Duminy made sure that some of his boys had a long session in the nets. The defeat against the Dutch, obviously, came as a blow, but with lots to play for, the Proteas cannot afford to lose the plot.
“The boys were hurt after the game. It’s part and parcel of a professional sportsman. We woke up the next day rejuvenated and are ready to go again - two massive games for us. The boys are ready to hit the ground running and take off from where we had left off against Australia,” Maharaj said in a select media interaction with the South African media.
Despite having featured in more than 100 outings for South Africa across formats, Maharaj hasn’t played at the Wankhede Stadium yet. But when the side takes on the defending champion, he’ll get a chance to play in one of the iconic venues.
“I have never been at Wankhede before, so I am just going ahead with all the knowledge that has been given by the other players. It’s good that we get exposed to various venues and it helps our skill sets in adapting various conditions,” he said.
South Africa came into the tournament with a 3-2 ODI series win against Australia and followed it up with two early wins. However, not many expected the cookie to crumble so early in the tournament. In the T20 World Cup last year, The Netherlands stunned South Africa in the last league match, knocking it out of the tournament.
This time, the shock defeat has come as a warning. “Everyone individually had the opportunity to review and re-assess. It did hurt us a lot after the game. The last time we lost to The Netherlands in 2022, it knocked us out of the World Cup, but this gives us another opportunity to rectify that…” Maharaj said.
South Africa, too, would be hoping to walk the talk.
Comments
SHARE