Chennai (Tamil Nadu) [India], October 26 : Ahead of his side's ICC Cricket World Cup match against Pakistan, South African captain Temba Bavuma said that is vital to have a good middle-order to do well in the tournament.
Pakistan will take on an in-form South Africa in their ICC Cricket World Cup match on Friday. With four wins in five matches, SA are a team to beat and is at second in the points table. After losses to India, Australia and Afghanistan, Pakistan is sixth with four points they got from two wins. They will have to win all their remaining matches to have any chance at advancing to the semifinals.
SA's middle-order consists of Aiden Markram, Heinrich Klaasen and David Miller is in top form.
Very important (to have good middle-order batters). Like I said, the success of those guys is due to the foundation that is set for them. You do not want guys like that walking in the 15th over or the 20th over. So, you really want to be setting up the game for them to come out and express the talent and ability that they have. I mean, the confidence that he (Klaasen) has, that he is exuding at the moment, it is rubbing on a lot of the guys within the team, within the conversations that we have. So, that's great to see. And I guess for us as players, it's to support him, to make sure that he keeps going stronger and stronger with those performances, but also for other guys as well to come in and put in those inspirational type of performances that we're seeing from him," said Bavuma in post-match presentation.
Bavuma said that the "chockers" tag associated with the side did not give them extra motivation to do well.
"I do not think it has given us any extra motivation to be honest. I think we probably looked at ways as to how we can maybe divert our attention away, not necessarily using the choker tag, but how do we address and deal with the precedent expectation. We understand that as the tournament progresses, the more we keep playing well, that is going to come to the fray. But I think we have developed ways as to how we can, I guess, divert our attention, and focus on the important things," said the captain.
"Like I said, it is still early in the tournament. There is still going to be pressure situations that we're going to overcome. If we stumble, we will probably have to deal with that tag again. But for us as a team, we're looking at other ways to be able to deal with it," he added.
On how they are planning for the match against Pakistan, Bavuma said, "I think we will plan for the game how we've been planning for all our games. We had our meetings today, we went through the Pakistan team, the threats that they bring, their strengths and obviously their weaknesses. So, I think probably in a basic form is to exploit those weaknesses and nullify their strengths. But as you said, Pakistan are a dangerous team. We know that they haven't played close to their best, but tomorrow could be that. Make sure we are ready for that."
On changes to the side to suit the conditions, Bavuma said that there will be and side is not finalised yet.
"We have not seen the wicket yet. It is still under covers, but definitely, you can expect for Tabraiz Shamsi to come into play," he added.
On missing two matches due to illness, he said, "Feeling a lot better, thank you. Do feel close to normal physically. Yeah, obviously as a player you want to be playing, it was frustrating. There wasn't really much I could do from their point of view. But I think comfort in the fact that Aiden came in as the leader and he did a very good job. Reza as well with the opportunities that he is given. He did what you would expect from a replacement player. So, I guess from that, there was comfort. Yeah, I am feeling a lot better."
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