South Africa registered a crushing 190-run win over New Zealand in Pune in the ongoing ICC World Cup 2023 and regained the no.1 spot in the points table with 12 points from 7 matches and an NRR of 2.290.
The Proteas have been ruthless in their performances so far, barring a blip against Netherlands. They have posted scores such as 428/5, 399/7, 382/5, and 357/4 while batting first and putting the opposition side under massive pressure.
Their next encounter will be against India on November 5 at the Eden Gardens in Kolkata and Proteas batter Rassie van der Dussen is confident that they will defeat India and qualify for the semi-finals.
"Obviously, playing India in India is a massive event. They've been playing really well. A lot of experience in their team. They've got all bases covered, brilliant bowling attack, and obviously the batting as well. But again, we'll go into that game knowing that if we do the things that we want to do, we'll be in a really strong position. The challenge is to be under pressure, to stay with that, and that's what we'll look to do. But we've played them here before and we've beaten them here before,” Van der Dussen said in the post-match press conference.
South Africa has managed only one ICC trophy thus far which came in the form of the Knockout Trophy in 1998, which later became the Champions Trophy tournament.
Van der Dussen emphasized their aggressive approach, saying, "What we've done really well in this campaign is we're really just focusing on what we want to do and how we want to play it. "In our match review meetings, we keep looking at the numbers with the coaches and so far in this tournament, by most metrics, we're stacking up pretty well. So, at the end of the day, it's almost irrelevant who's in front of you. We know if we play the way we want to play and execute how we want to and take the correct options, especially under pressure, then the result is a byproduct of that."
South Africa's strength has undoubtedly been their formidable batting unit, as evidenced by their remarkable statistics. They had the fewest dot balls and yet the most boundaries of any team in this World Cup.
Van der Dussen explained, "I think that's a result of what we want to do when we're out in the middle. We talk about assessing the conditions and what's the correct option and always having the correct intent. Our approach differs throughout the innings, considering options and intent, but we know that if we can follow through with these principles, we naturally put ourselves in a better position to score and to position the ball where we want to."
South Africa has hit 82 sixes in the CWC 2023 so far, a world record, which they achieved against New Zealand. Before them, England had hit 76 sixes in the 2019 World Cup.
(PTI inputs)
