As they go farther in the 2023 World Cup, South Africa’s captain, Temba Bavuma, said that the team wants to deal with the burden of expectations and get over the stigma of being chokers.
The Proteas won both of their previous matches against Bangladesh and England handily, despite Bavuma’s absence. On Friday, October 27, he will be back in Chennai for the Pakistan match.
The Proteas have won four of their five games in the competition, placing them second on the points table. They have been incredibly good thus far.
In an interview with media prior to the Pakistan match, Temba Bavuma ruled down the idea that the players were motivated in any way by the chokers nickname and instead stated that his goal was to improve his ability to handle pressure.
“I don’t think it’s given us any extra motivation,” Bavuma said. “We 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.
“We understand that as the tournament progresses, the more we keep playing well, that’s going to come to the fray.”
Temba Bavuma
The South African captain did concede, though, that the word would be in circulation if they failed once more to clear the last obstacle.
“But I think we’ve developed ways as to how we can divert our attention and focus on the important things,” Temba Bavuma stated. “It’s still early in the tournament. There’s still going to be pressure situations that we’re going to overcome. If we stumble, we’ll probably have to deal with that tag again.
“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.”
Temba Bavuma
Despite being one of the pre-tournament favorites on each occasion, South Africa has never advanced beyond the World Cup semi-final stage.
While the Proteas have had some setbacks, they have also bowed to the strain of the knockout games with dubious decision-making.
“We know somewhere along the line in the tournament we’ll have to bat second” – Temba Bavuma
Despite being in a good position on the points table, Temba Bavuma said that the Proteas will have to chase at some point during the competition.
While South Africa’s domination has been outstanding, the team has benefited from batting first and recording big totals in all four of their triumphs. In Dharamsala, they lost their lone game while pursuing the Netherlands.
Nonetheless, Bavuma believed that the Proteas may elect to chase against Pakistan, given that the Chennai surface appeared to improve to bat on under the lights.
“I watched the Afghanistan game with Pakistan and it seemed to get a lot better batting under light,” Bavuma continued. “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 we know somewhere along the line in the tournament we’ll have to bat second. 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.”
Temba Bavuma
While South Africa has been taking the World Cup by storm, Pakistan has unfortunately suffered a string of three consecutive losses. Currently, they are lingering in sixth place on the points table, having secured only two victories in their five games so far.
But the team from Asia can feel reassured knowing that the South Africans haven’t managed to defeat them in an ODI World Cup since way back in 1999.