The Proteas have a steep mountain to climb after Monday’s No-Result against Zimbabwe. Temba Bavuma’s men find themselves having to win 3 from 4 to ensure a playoff spot in the T20 World Cup.
The No-result outcome in yesterday’s rain-affected T20 World Cup clash between South Africa and Zimbabwe has put both sides in a difficult position. Alongside the African teams are India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and the Netherlands in Group 2. India and Bangladesh have won their opening fixtures beating Pakistan and the Netherlands respectively.
This means South Africa has to win three games, but one of those three has to be Pakistan, who has already lost to India.
The weather forecast for Thursday’s clash with Bangladesh in Sydney is not looking good either. This would further dampen South Africa’s chances of making the playoffs.
On paper, South Africa should convincingly breeze past Bangladesh and the Netherlands. But as we’ve seen from last year’s World Cup, when we failed to quickly chase down 80-odd runs against Bangladesh, Word Cup cricket is a different ball game.
“The biggest take from the previous World Cup is that every game matters. You want to try and perform as well as you can and make sure that you keep an eye on that net-run rate,” skipper Temba Bavuma told the media.
The lessons were learnt as Bavuma emphasized but beating India and Pakistan will surely be a steep mountain to climb. Bangladesh is on a high at the moment after their victory last week but this is a different Proteas side from last year’s World Cup. The side is stronger and the conditions suit them more than Bangladesh which should be a confidence boost for the Proteas.
On the other hand, the Netherlands has done a good job to qualify for the Super 12s. They were in a group with 2016 World Champions Sri Lanka and Namibia which were favourites to qualify for the Super 12 stage of the tournament.
Despite having qualified, the Netherlands will undoubtedly be wary of this Proteas side. If there’s any side the Netherlands will not want to lose against, it is South Africa. Undoubtedly, the presence of Roelof van der Merwe and Colin Ackermann in that side will motivate the Dutch to dig deeper against the Proteas because there is a ‘score to settle’.
Ackermann represented South Africa at the A level while VD Merwe played ODIs and T20Is in the green and gold before emigrating to the Netherlands. Also, the fact that this is South Africa’s last group fixture makes for an interesting encounter.
The Dutch could have it in their hands to deny South Africa a spot in the semis, given that the Proteas won their preceding three games. The Netherlands will be licking their lips to cause an upset against the mighty Proteas, come November 6th.
South Africa remaining fixtures:
Bangladesh on October 27th
India on October 30th
Pakistan on November 3rd
Netherlands on November 6th
PHOTO: EPA/LINDA HIGGINSON
