South Africa’s national cricket team is quietly confident ahead of its ICC Men’s T20 World Cup semi-final against Afghanistan in Trinidad and Tobago early on Thursday morning. Captain Aiden Markram says there are some nerves amongst the players, but the mood is generally one of excitement and belief.
There’s no doubt that Proteas and their fans alike will be hoping that they make this opportunity count and advance to their first final in a World Cup tournament when they take on Afghanistan in Tarouba.
The South Africans have been in seven previous World Cup semi-finals in both the 50-over and T20 formats but have squandered those opportunities.
Markram says that there is understandably some nerves given the magnitude of the occasion but the mood in the camp is one of excitement and anticipation especially since they are unbeaten in the tournament.
“We can take a lot of calmness from the fact that this competition we have been involved in a few close games. So, it’s not going to feel like anything new to us, that being said, we take a lot of belief knowing that we might not be in ideal position but we have been able to get the job done that offers you quite a bit of calmness, as well as a team keeping those things close to us. I would say you always look at the way you want to play the game if you operating in that space, you take calmness confidence in you decision making and hopefully that can help us.”
The skipper says that the fact that this team has played together for a long period and has honed on team culture, has made all the difference at this tournament and it’s the reason why the Proteas are still unbeaten.
“The experience together as a team and being together for years probably is quite a big difference. Guys have a lot of trust in each other and are definitely willing to put everything on the line for each other. Once you have established that as a team, it goes a long way from what to see on the field, from an actions point of view, from an effort point of view. So, those two things that we managed to get over some time now has helped us and landed us in a really nice position at the moment,”
The match at The Brian Lara Cricket Academy in Tarouba is a night game and will get underway a 2h30 AM South African time.
