Proteas’ style welcome distraction from World Cup worries

When is a dead rubber not a dead rubber? When it’s a match in the Cricket World Cup Super League qualifying competition.

SA is confronting that scenario as it concludes the three-match ODI series against England in Kimberley on Wednesday.

The series is won, the team is playing well, they’re taking the necessary steps regarding a new style and they have rotated players over the first two matches. And yet there is still so much to do to secure a top eight spot in the Super League and automatic qualification for this year’s World Cup. 

The Proteas and Cricket SA put the national side in this predicament, in which they daren’t take their foot off the pedal. Temba Bavuma’s team have moved past Sri Lanka up to ninth on the Super League log. They are nine points behind the West Indies and will move above them with a win — which carries 10 points — in Kimberley. 

Their remaining two matches in the Super League will be against the Netherlands at end-March where two more wins should secure them the final automatic qualifying spot for this year’s World Cup in India. 

If one of their remaining three Super League matches is lost or rained out, they will face the prospect of finishing below Sri Lanka — who still have a three-match series in New Zealand to play in March — though the weather in that country is notoriously fickle too.

It is probably why the Proteas have adopted a phlegmatic outlook as far as the automatic qualification is concerned. Bavuma and stand-in coach Shukri Conrad have said que sera sera about the prospect of playing in the qualification tournament which will be held in Zimbabwe in June/July. 

There’s been an acceptance about possibly playing the qualifying competition and having to finish in the top two of a 10-team event. To prevent that possibility from becoming too overwhelming for the players, Bavuma and Conrad have explained the importance of processes and achieving minitargets set by the team.

The questions internally have been about how the team has played and how they want to improve. “We’ve been speaking about being more aggressive,” said David Miller. “All our batters are boundary strikers. It’s more an awareness thing to try to be bolder in different parts of the game, not necessarily just at the end but throughout the innings.”

With that element as the focus, the players would be able to take that mindset into future matches, regardless of where and when those will be played.

“We want to get into the top eight, so every ODI is an important event. However it becomes more necessary now to be as clinical as we can, not take the foot off the pedal and be really up for any challenge mentally,” said Miller.