Wellington – Having overcome a match in which they were caught between the proverbial “rock and a hard place”, South Africa are keen to focus their attention on the World Cup quarter-final that awaits them, most likely in Sydney next Wednesday.
South Africa played like a team that just wanted to get yesterday’s match against the United Arab Emirates out of the way. A 146-run victory looks convincing, but for large parts of the match, the Proteas were anything but. Never mind though, they were always going to win the match, largely untroubled too, and they got the two points they needed that ensured that quarter-final spot and a second-place finish in Pool B behind defending champions India.
Who they will play remained a mystery, though the strongest likelihood is that it will be the 1996 champions Sri Lanka at the Sydney Cricket Ground. Half the squad left for Sydney this morning, and a second group will depart in the early hours of tomorrow, with the first training session planned for Sunday.
Only a win for Bangladesh over New Zealand today would lead to a change of plan, with the South Africans then having to go to Melbourne.
All of that though was not a concern last night. Quinton de Kock remains the biggest worry with the only positive to emerge from his painful knock of 26 the fact that he managed to spend time at the crease – 73 minutes during which he faced 45 balls – comfortably the longest he’s batted at the tournament.
“Quinny showed some good signs today, he was prepared to fight it out,” AB de Villiers said.
As for the rest of the side, De Villiers is delighted he and the selectors have a few difficult decisions to make ahead of the quarter-final. “That’s what you want, to pick from guys who are in form, even if it is going to be difficult,” he remarked.
With the exception of De Kock, all the other batsmen look to be in good shape. Faf du Plessis, who sat out yesterday’s match on account of a sore back, is expected to return for the knockout match, which leaves one difficult decision to be made between Rilee Rossouw and Farhaan Behardien for the extra batting spot. The pair play in different positions – Rossouw at the top of the order and Behardien lower down, but both showed good signs against the UAE.
In fact Rossouw has been excellent since being called upon as a replacement for JP Duminy against the West Indies scoring two half-centuries and last night making 43.
The manner in which Behardien “finished” the innings was in keeping with his role in the side, though it must be tempered with the fact that it was against some comically poor “death” bowling from the UAE. Behardien offers more with the ball than Rossouw, and on what is likely to be a dry and slow track against a powerful Sri Lankan batting team, his medium pace might see him sneak in ahead of Rossouw.
While their run through the Pool phase of the tournament hasn’t been as smooth as they’d have wanted, South Africa have achieved the first small goal of this campaign – to reach the knockout phase.
Now the fun starts.
“We’ve had one or two upsets, but that happens in the group stages,” said Dave Miller, who’s partnership of 108 with De Villiers yesterday was crucial in providing the stability and then the foundation from which Behardien could launch his assault. “We have shown in the last year and a half that we can play consistently, I know the boys are raring to go come the quarter-final.”
Hanging over their heads – and undoubtedly a feature of Sri Lanka’s strategising – are the problems South Africa have batting second. In both matches in which they’ve chased at this World Cup, they’ve lost.
Against India in Melbourne, the bowlers left them too much to do in pursuing over 300 on a difficult pitch, but against Pakistan they folded rather alarmingly, chasing a modest target of 232.
“It’s not just about the individual, it’s about how the team performs, everyone has to chip in,” said Miller.
“Unfortunately we came up short against Pakistan. I’ve felt in the last year that I have got better at chasing, it’s just about thinking clearly and executing the decision you make. You want to assess the situation properly and then take it as deep as possible, that’s the routine I like to stick to.
“This can be a cruel game, that’s just the way it goes, we may need to improve the execution of certain shots we played the other night.” - The Star