Tarouba, Jun 26
Asserting that their best is yet to come, South Africa coach Rob Walter said the team is not bogged down by near misses of the past and will “take confidence” from its performance in crunch moments on way to the ongoing T20 World Cup semifinals.
In the first semifinal of the tournament here on Thursday, perennial dark horses South Africa will take on an Afghanistan team that has caused a flutter with its heroics in the tournament, the highlight of which has been the sensational win over heavyweights Australia.
In the press-match press conference, Walter was asked if this could be South Africa’s time after having battled their way past tricky opponents in testing conditions over the last few weeks.
“Definitely it’s always great to dream and I think everyone in South Africa dreams of the time when a trophy gets lifted. No doubt that will happen. Whether it’s going to be this week, that remains to be seen.
“We’re just going to try and play the best game of cricket that we can. And we still haven’t played our best game yet,” Walter told reporters.
South Africa’s success in prevailing in tricky situations, their Achilles Heel in the past, bodes well for the side chasing a maiden World Cup title triumph.
“From the closeness point of view, yeah, we’ve managed to get over the line in quite a number of close games in the lead up to the semifinal, which for a team has been great for us.
“We’ve potentially missed out on a few of those moments in the past, and this time around we managed to get over the line. So, we certainly take confidence out of that.
“We still want to play our best cricket in the key moments of the game tomorrow.”
Right from the 1992 World Cup, their first since readmission into international cricket after the apartheid ban, South Africa have either chocked in those big semifinals of ICC tournaments or luck deserted them.
Needless to say, the subject was broached during the interaction.
“Look, I said, the near misses in the past, they belong to the people who missed them. To be honest, this team is a different team. We own whatever is ours to own. And so, our nearest reflection point is this tournament where we’ve managed to get over the line. So that’s what we think about.”
Walter made no effort to play down the pressure and excitement of playing in a World Cup semifinal.
“It’s never just another game. I think that sort of rhetoric around semifinals is always untrue, or people trying to downplay the occasion. Certainly, we don’t do that. It is a semifinal of a World Cup, and we appreciate that and we’re looking forward to it.”
Instead, he played down the luck factor.
“I don’t think you can win a cricket game because of luck. I think potentially a few things can go your way but there’s a few things that might not. So, skill will always trump luck, that’s for sure. So, I’d like to think that.”
He lavished praise on Afghanistan’s incredible run to the semifinals, the war-ravaged nation’s first in a World Cup.
“We’re seeing Afghanistan in a T20 semifinal. It’s awesome for the game of cricket. I love the way they play the game and the way they support it.”
How well does he know the Afghanistan team?
Walter said, it’s not difficult to study teams in modern cricket, with plenty of technology at its disposal.
“Look, I mean, a number of their players play in a number of the leagues around the world. In this day and age, there’s not too many players where there’s no footage or no information about.
“So, from an Afghanistan player point of view, we do have that sort of information. We’ve also got an entire World Cup, which they’ve also played seven games in.
“So, from that point of view, we’ve had the opportunity to watch games of cricket as near as last night and then also in the different leagues that the guys have played and played together. So, we’re comfortable with our knowledge in it.”
Walter is wary of the threats Afghanistan could pose in the semifinal.
“I think you, yeah, you would have seen it all in the last two days. I think they are a well-rounded team. Gone are the days where there is an area of the team that is not strong. They wouldn’t be in a semi-final if that was the case.
“You’re talking about some world-class spinners. Everyone knows about the world-class spinners led by Rashid Khan. I mean, he’s a top-class T20 spinner anywhere in the world. So, we know about that. But as I said, it’s not a one-man show anymore. That’s for sure,” Walter said.
