The Proteas won’t attempt to fool themselves into thinking Thursday’s semifinal against Australia is “just another match”.
“For us, it is important to acknowledge that it is a semifinal. I don’t ever want the guys to downplay a semifinal, because they have played bloody good cricket to get there,” said Proteas head coach Rob Walter.
Engaging in silly psychological tricks with themselves is not the way of this 2023 Proteas World Cup squad, which has surprised many viewers — both at home and here in India — with how well they have played, having qualified for the final four with relative ease.
“I think the players backed themselves to be contenders. For us, the exciting part is the way we have played. No one gave us a chance at qualifying for the semifinals. In a general sense we weren’t even thought of.”
The Proteas have never stopped trusting themselves despite belief from the outside being absent. That self-belief will be critical when facing a team of Australia’s pedigree.
“There was some fatigue for them at the start, but once you get momentum in a World Cup campaign, you start to think less about fatigue, and you trust your cricket,” Walter said of the five-time World Cup winners.
The Proteas have developed and implemented a very clear method with the bat, with the top order happy to absorb pressure early, allowing the middle order of Aiden Markram, David Miller and Heinrich Klaasen to flourish in the latter stages.
Understandably, concerns remain about their ability to chase a target — which would not have been assuaged by how they managed Friday’s effort against Afghanistan.
However, it won’t be so easy as Australia winning the toss on Thursday and choosing to bat — a style they also prefer. Conditions — and especially the prospect of dew in the evening, which makes batting easier — are elements both sides will have to strongly weigh up.
It is a gamble, because as India’s seamers showed when they obliterated the Proteas last week, there is a small window with the new ball when batting is tricky. However, if batters can get through it, they can thrive when the dew settles and controlling a wet ball becomes difficult for the bowlers.
Both teams possess potent attacks, with Australian leg-spinner Adam Zampa having surged to the top of the wicket-taking charts yesterday against Bangladesh.
The Proteas have allowed the variety in their bowling unit to become a weapon, and conditions at Eden Gardens will dictate if they utilise Tabraiz Shamsi again, given Australia’s problems with spin. He didn’t cover himself in glory against India at the same venue last week, when conditions did favour spin, and he produced an ill-disciplined display.
South Africa was still to decide if captain Temba Bavuma will need scans after he suffered what the team’s management described as a hamstring strain during Friday’s win against Afghanistan.
He looked very uncomfortable when he batted, unable to sprint between the wickets, and the ailment also inhibited his usual explosiveness in the field.
Despite Bavuma struggling at this tournament — scoring 145 runs at an average of 20.71 — as the team’s captain, his position in the starting team is cemented. Besides being skipper, his ODI record in the 18 months leading up to the World Cup has given him plenty of leeway with the selectors.
The belief among his teammates and the coaching staff is that he will come good. The problem is that they cannot allow their support to blind them to a physical ailment that will hamper his impact both in the field and with the bat, thereby handicapping the team as a whole.
Thursday will be South Africa’s fifth World Cup semifinal. Famously, they’ve failed to win any of the previous four — with two of those being against Australia. That history has already been thrown in their faces.
“The whole chat around our group was, ‘you know what, on the 19th of November we’ll be where we need to be’ — if it’s lifting the trophy or not,” said Rassie van der Dussen. “We’ll look to play the way we want to play and do what we want to do.”
The Proteas have won eight of the last 10 ODIs against Australia, so they know the formula for beating the five-times World Cup winners. However, Van der Dussen highlighted one key difference between the teams. “A lot of their guys have been in those situations before, and have a good reference of how it is to win the World Cup, and from having played in the semifinal four years ago,” he said.
The fact that South Africa was the last team to earn an automatic qualifying spot ensured there was no attention on them when they started the tournament. But wins against Sri Lanka, where they notched up a World Cup record total and then a 134-run victory against Australia, quickly changed perspectives.
“We played really high quality cricket to get into the semifinal and then what happens? Expectations rise, people think ‘ooh, maybe they’ve got a chance here’,” Walter remarked.
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