The Proteas head into the ‘Super 8’ phase of the T20 World Cup on an impressive unbeaten run, but they will be fully aware that there is no room for error in the next stage of the tournament as they get set to take on hosts India, ever-dangerous West Indies and ‘giant killers’ Zimbabwe.
Ultimately, the first priority will be to simply put up a strong showing this Sunday when they take on India in front of a packed out crowd in Ahmedabad.
Play will get underway at 15:30 (SA time).
Looking ahead to this clash, Proteas legend Shaun Pollock said there was very little to choose between the two teams.
“I think South Africa and India have got personnel who can kind of match each other on a day. So Quinton (de Kock) can fire. He can match what Abhishek (Sharma) can do. Aiden (Markram) can fire. He can kind of match whoever,” Pollock commented.
“I think this (Proteas) playing group in particular have gone where no one else has gone,” he added. “They played in a final (at the last T20 World Cup) and they’ve got that experience of being involved in the heat of battle on the ultimate stage, which is it would have been a great learning curve for them.”
Proteas Super 8 Schedule at the T20 World Cup
- Sunday, 22 February
- Opponent: India
- Venue: Narendra Modi Stadium, Ahmedabad
- Time: 15:30 SAST
- Thursday, 26 February
- Opponent: West Indies
- Venue: Narendra Modi Stadium, Ahmedabad
- Time: 11:30 SAST
- Sunday, 1 March
- Opponent: Zimbabwe
- Venue: Arun Jaitley Stadium, Delhi
- Time: 11:30 SAST
Permutation for the Proteas
With the top two sides from each four-team group progressing from the ‘Super 8’ stage, the Proteas will need to win at least two out of their three matches if they hope to progress to the knockout stage.
One might think that the clash against Zimbabwe would be the easiest out of the three upcoming fixtures, but South Africa’s neighbours achieved yet another brilliant result on Thursday after defeating Sri Lanka to finish their pool phase undefeated, having also effectively knocked out Australia earlier in the competition.
Discussion about this post