South Africa will be tempted to field first against Pakistan in their World Cup clash here on Friday, conceded captain Temba Bavuma after the Proteas piled up two of the highest totals in the competition while batting first in their recent outings. South Africa scored 399/7 against England and 382/5 against Bangladesh to record big wins by more than 100 runs in their two-game stint in Mumbai, making the most of the batting-friendly surface. With their only loss in five games coming while batting second, South Africa would be tempted to chase if they win toss in Chennai knowing how conducive batting conditions were here during Afghanistan’s eight-wicket win over Pakistan.
“I watched the Afghanistan game with Pakistan and it seemed to get a lot better batting under light. So, I guess there’s that temptation from a batting point of view at least,” Bavuma told the media in Chennai on Thursday.
“There’s obviously us needing to consider the fact that we’ve had a lot of success of late batting first. So fortunately for me, I don’t have to make that decision right now. But, I think we know somewhere along the line in the tournament we’ll have to bat second,” he added.
“The conversations that we’ve had as batters is to find ways as to how we can still follow that same process that we follow when we’re batting first,” Bavuma added.
The sluggish pitch here at the MA Chidambaram Stadium is yet to witness a total in excess of 300. But for South Africa, their approach in reading the conditions and forming their plans will not change.
“What we’ve done well is there’s that process within our batting of assessing the conditions, looking at what we need from a skill and options point of view to be successful, and that’s what we’ve done well,” Bavuma said.
“The process in itself, batting here in Chennai, that’s not going to change. We’ll assess the wicket and, I guess, come up with options as to how we can be successful,” he added.
Bavuma warned Pakistan’s struggling bowling line-up that his side won’t miss out on putting another huge total on board if the conditions allow them to.
“If the opportunity is there for us to score 350, we’ll do so. If not, we’ll make sure we play what’s happening in front of us as best as we can,” he said.
Bavuma also confirmed that there will be changes to the playing XI with spinner Tabraiz Shamsi set to come in. “We haven’t finalised the team yet. We haven’t seen the wicket yet. It’s still under covers, but definitely, you can expect for Shamsi to come into play.”
The second-placed South Africa have no intentions to draw motivation from the tag ‘chokers’, which has been associated with their failures in crucial stages of several ICC tournaments. However, Bavuma said his side does not read much into it.
“I don’t think it has given us any extra motivation. I think we probably looked at ways as to how we can maybe divert our attention away, not necessarily using the chokers tag, but how do we address and deal with the precedent expectation,” he said.
“We understand that as the tournament progresses, the more we keep playing well, that’s going to come to the fray. But, I think we’ve developed ways as to how we can divert our attention, and focus on the important thing,” he added.
Bavuma admitted Pakistan have not played close to their best but South Africa would not take anything for granted.
“We know that they haven’t played close to their best, but tomorrow could be that. (We have to) make sure we are ready for that,” he said.
“We didn’t write out Pakistan starting the tournament. I had them as one of the top four teams at the end of the group stages. So that’s the amount of respect that you have for Pakistan. We don’t have a great record against Pakistan in ODIs. With everything that is happening around their team, the things that are not happening well for them,” he said.
Bavuma said South Africa must remain focussed irrespective of the opponent’s standing. “I think that humbles us as a team, and it really gets us to just pull ourselves back and make sure that we still focus on playing good cricket,” he said.
The Proteas captain, however, took some pleasure in how his team has gone about its business in the World Cup so far. “Five games ago, we weren’t probably seen as the favourites, but now, there’s a lot more positivity around the Proteas and the South African team. But, yeah, I think the old, cliched way, we’re trying to take it day by day and keep enjoying our processes and the journey,” he said.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
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