After a dismal performance in the 12th edition of ICC Cricket World Cup, South Africa are left with nothing in this tournament more than pride, as they take an early exit from the tournament. With two games left for them now, batsmen will look to put on show something special and exceptional as they are yet to score a century.
Middle-order batsman David Miller will be hoping, the batsman can convert some of their starts into something big to end their campaign on a high.
“As a batting unit, we’ve had starts and we haven’t kicked on and it’s happened throughout the competition,” Miller said.
“All the batters have got starts and not finished the job. We haven’t had enough hundred partnerships or fifty partnerships and you’re not going to win games of cricket like that,” he added.
South Africa has just a single century stand in their name this World Cup, shared by Quinton de Kock and Hashim Amla, in their only victory against Afghanistan.
“I’ve scored four 30s. Two of them have been at the back end, trying to go for it and the other two, I feel like I could have put in two big performances there. On self-reflection, it has been quite disappointing,” Miller, who scored 38 against Bangladesh and 31 against India apart from 36 against New Zealand and 31 against Pakistan, said.
“The margins are really small. It’s a split second here or there when you could be caught. On another day, that could be six,” he added.
Optimistic Miller thinks they are not far from turning the things around.
“It’s difficult for people to believe that we are very close. The guys are starting well but not continuing with that pressure,” Miller said.
Miller assured that the self-belief is very much intact in them, especially in himself.
“I don’t feel like my confidence is low. For me, personally, it's been lack of execution. We haven’t won so you start looking at a lot of different things where we could have done better.”
“Ultimately, we’ve been really close and when you are playing at the highest level, the margins are so small. We are doing the right things, we are just not extending it and we’re not winning games due to that,” he added.
“It is a bitter pill to swallow”, says Miller's teammate Kagiso Rabada who also expressed his disappointment on South Africa’s failure to make it to the knockouts.
“For me, there is no pressure. We came here, we wanted to win the World Cup and now we are knocked out. It is a bitter pill to swallow but now we have to go back and stay positive. We have lost this World Cup but it’s not the end of the world,” Rabada said in the ICC mixed zone at Lord’s.
“We need to perform as a team. Not just have one-two guys performing when others are failing. It’s not a question that we are not trying but it’s just the reality of it,” he added.
The only thing to cheer for South Africa was their veteran leg-spinner, Imran Tahir, in his final ODI tournament, became leading wicket-taker for South Africa in World Cups with 39 hunts, going past Allan Donald.
“Immy is a beam of inspiration for all of us, clearly when I look at it. He’s shown us how it is done and we can all take a leaf out of his book. He’s always had the hunger and the passion but what has served him well is his skill,” Rabada said about Tahir.
South Africa will face defending champions Australia in their last match, Rabada will be hungry to perform against in-form Warner.
“We have played Australia quite a lot of times now, so we have plans of playing against them. In the back of my mind and other bowlers’ mind, we will have a plan but we’ll get together just to refresh. We’ll have to adapt to conditions and it’s going to be an exciting challenge,” Rabada said about bowling to Warner in their final game of the World Cup.
The Proteas next face Sri Lanka at Chester-le-Street on Friday.
(With Inputs from CricketNext)
