Anrich Nortje gunning for World T20

Anrich Nortje expressed his desire to play T20 cricket for the Proteas with his eye set on T20 World Cup selection, writes Khalid Mohidin.

Nortje just came off a tough Test series against England. After winning the first Test, the Proteas were dominated in the last three Tests, beaten comprehensively on all three occasions.

Nortje, however, was one of the positive aspects of the series. He was the bowler of the series finishing with 18 wickets which included a maiden five-for.

The Proteas decided to give him a much-needed break during the white-ball games against England. So with a little bit of time on his hands, he chatted to Cricket Fanatics Magazine, about his desire to play in the T20 World Cup.

The T20 format was what put his name on the map during the inaugural Mzansi Super League competition.

Although he never was selected as part of the squad for the T20 series against England, Nortje will be getting practice in the 50-over format for the Warriors, with his sights set on World Cup selection.

“Definitely, I already missed out on one World Cup so I’ll try my best to do whatever I can to get into this one,” he said when asked about his desire to play in the T20 World Cup later this year.

“It’s gonna be hard work I’ve got a lot of T20 (cricket) to still play and to build up to but from here on out, it’s just about taking it game by game and step by step.

“Hopefully when the opportunity comes I can play some T20 cricket for South Africa.

“If not, then wherever or whatever it is, I just want to build that experience for now so that’s one of my main focuses for this year.”

Nortje also expressed how Charl Langeveldt has helped him in the short time he has worked with him.

“I’ve really enjoyed him so far. He worked on small things with me. Not doing too much… obviously, we only had a week before (the Test series) to try and just to be together as a group so we didn’t do too much,” Nortje explained.

“We were trying to hop on the basics and the simple stuff. From India going into Mzansi I was still struggling a little bit.

“Then sort of at the end of it I was working with our coach as well in PE, Piet Botha, just to do simple stuff like running straighter lines and just focusing on that.

“That definitely helped me a lot and I felt a lot more comfortable going into the Test series – where it comes to consistency and just hitting my line and length, so it felt good going into it.”

With the Proteas being in a transition phase, the losses have not made it easy to be a South Africa Cricket Fanatic. Nortje, however, urged the fans to keep up their loyal support.

“It’s been a very hard year so far and the guys have proven in white-ball cricket that we are up for it,” he concluded.

“We really want to improve as we go along we really want you guys to keep on supporting us and then things are going to change.

“It’s just about building for now and then I’m sure in a few games we’re gonna change things around.”