Cricket World Cup: ‘We are not coming up against a Mickey Mouse team’, Temba Bavuma advises caution before South Africa’s semifinal against Australia | Cricket-world-cup News

When it comes to World Cups, the fortunes of Australia and South Africa have been intertwined for as long as one can remember. The two teams have faced each other seven times in the tournament with the head-to-head record level at three wins apiece with one tie. Ahead of another high-stakes semifinal on Thursday, Proteas skipper Temba Bavuma admitted that he was a bit nervous, even as he raced against time to overcome a hamstring strain.
“Physically, I feel alright. Obviously not 100%. So obviously, this day becomes important in terms of decisions about tomorrow. I’m quite confident, but it’s not a unilateral decision that will be made,” Bavuma said on the eve of the game.
“Obviously, a bit nervous about the game. It will be our first semifinal as a team. But the feeling is no different, I guess, from any game that we’ve encountered within the World Cup.”
Asked if this particular semifinal holds a different significance for South Africa, Bavuma was cautious in his answer, showing respect to the impending Australian threat.
“They’re all important, the semifinals. With the way we’ve performed as a team, it’s obviously created a lot of positive sentiment, but obviously high expectations. A lot of people believe that this could be the year when we see ourselves in the final. As a team and individually, we’d like nothing better. But we also respect the game of cricket. We’re not coming up against a Mickey Mouse team. Australia have a lot of experience and confidence in knockout games, so we’ve got to respect that. I’d hate to say that we deserve to go through because of the way we played our cricket. I don’t think that’s the way things go. But I think from our performances, from the processes that we’ve followed to get to this point, we’ll continue to lean on that and we believe that will take care of the result in itself,” the Proteas skipper said.
Looking for parallels
There has been an underlying narrative linking the South African rug team, the Springboks, who recently won their fourth World Cup and the cricket team, with Bavuma as well as some of his teammates acknowledging their influence.Most Read
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South Africa’s Siya Kolisi lifts the trophy as teammates celebrate, as South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, left walks onto the platform during the presentation ceremony after they won the Rug World Cup final match between New Zealand and South Africa at the Stade de France in Saint-Denis, near Paris Saturday, Oct. 28, 2023. South Africa won the game 12-11. (AP Photo/Chrophe Ena)
“To a large degree, we look at the Springboks in awe, and how they’ve gone about their back-to-back wins in the World Cup. Obviously, the way they won it this year with the knockout games being quite close and again how that resilience and do-or-die attitude came through. That’s what we’ve been speaking about as a team, that when the crunch moment comes, when the pressure moments come, we come together as a team and find a way to get over the line.
“We also accept that it’s for us to control what we can control, what our story is within the Proteas. We know what we’d like to look like. We want to be there on November 19, but for us to do that we have to focus and deal with tomorrow as best as we can,” the South African opener said.
Even as the two teams prepare for the crucial encounter, there have been rumblings of weather being a factor with predictions of possible cyclonic conditions on match day as well as the reserve day. In case that happens, South Africa, who finished higher up the points table than Australia, will go through to the final.