Proteas look ahead to Super Eight stage of T20 World Cup as other teams slug it out

South Africa celebrates the dismissal of Angelo Mathews of Sri Lanka during the 2024 ICC Men's T20 World Cup match between Sri Lanka and South Africa at Nassau County International Cricket Stadium on June 03, 2024 in New York, United States of America. (Photo by Richard Huggard/Gallo Images)

By Keanan Hemmonsbey

13 Jun 2024

South Africa will look for consistency in selection in their final group-stage match against Nepal, having already qualified for the next round.

The Proteas have safely secured their passage through to the Super Eight stage of the T20 World Cup, with their final group stage match against Nepal on Saturday inconsequential to the final standings.

The match is, however, an opportunity for head coach Rob Walter and his men to find some much-needed confidence, particularly in the batting department.

Coach Rob Walters. (Photo: Grant Pitcher / Gallo Images)

The Proteas’ top order struggled in the side’s three matches at the pop-up Nassau County International Cricket Stadium on Long Island, New York, which is currently being taken down.

South Africa are unbeaten in the tournament after beating Sri Lanka by six wickets, edging the Netherlands by four wickets and scraping past Bangladesh by four runs.

The victories were largely set up by South Africa’s relentless bowlers, who were ably assisted by the tricky wicket at the Nassau County ground.

The top order failed to get going, however, and were bailed out by the middle order in all three matches.

Quinton de Kock has been the most successful, with scores of 20 and 18 and a duck wedged in between when he was run out at the non-striker’s end without facing a ball.

Reeza Hendricks, on the other hand, has failed to reach double figures so far at the T20 World Cup, with a top score of four.

Skipper Aiden Markram has only crossed double figures once, with a score of 12 in the opening match. He then failed to bother the scorers against the Netherlands and was dismissed for four against Bangladesh.

Walter, however, is backing his top order to fire in the more batting-friendly conditions at the Arnos Vale Stadium in St Vincent & the Grenadines where they take on Nepal.

“We’ll not make too many changes unless the conditions tell us to do that,” Walter said to the media regarding the makeup of the playing XI against Nepal.

“It was a tough outing in New York for the top order. So, I don’t want to change there, I want to allow the guys to, hopefully, play on a better surface.

“From a bowling point of view, conditions were in our favour. Being able to bowl in the mould that we do in South Africa, from a hard-length point of view and just using the deck to give us that variation.

“We want to keep some consistency, we want to keep getting better as a team, but conditions will dictate.”

South Africa celebrates the dismissal of Angelo Mathews of Sri Lanka during the 2024 ICC Men's T20 World Cup match between Sri Lanka and South Africa at Nassau County International Cricket Stadium on 3 June 2024 in New York, United States of America. (Photo: Richard Huggard / Gallo Images)

Adapting

Reverting to South Africa’s aggressive style of play that has been adopted since Walter took over the white-ball sides in 2023 won’t be a challenge when conditions for strokeplay improve, Walter said.

“Our default for the way we have been playing for a period of time is the aggressive, expansive brand, so it’s not like the guys are not used to doing it,” he said.

“Being able to click back into that form of how we play, I don’t think will be too tough. It is just what the guys do these days.

“The pitch in New York was tough because there was lateral bounce both laterally and vertically.

“As soon as the pitches are good, the batters understand what is required and how to play from there.”

Despite early success in the tournament, the head coach is still eager to see improvement from his side.

“I thought the fielding quality and intensity was excellent,” he said. “I thought the execution in the field was excellent.

“From a bowling point of view, there were just certain areas that the games never led us to, like a death phase where two set batters are in and putting us under pressure.

“We want to continually improve in that space. World cricket has shown us that if you have two set batters together in the last five overs of the game, in T20 cricket on a good wicket, it’s a really tough thing to manage.

“We still want to brush up on that.”

Super Eight hopefuls

While South Africa’s passage to the next phase of the tournament is secured, several other big teams are on the brink of elimination.

New Zealand, England, Sri Lanka and Pakistan all face a very real threat of falling out in the group stage.

“I’m very chuffed that we’re not sitting in that position and that we’ve taken care of our own destiny in terms of a next phase point of view,” Walter said.

“The rest of the pool phase is going to be very interesting to see what happens in the pools that still need to be settled.”

So far, India, South Africa, West Indies and Australia have qualified for the Super Eight stage.

The Super Eight phase of the tournament has pre-tournament seedings with the teams pre-assigned to groups.

Regardless of where they finish in their group stages, South Africa and West Indies will contest group B of the Super Eight and will be joined by either Scotland or England and one of the US or Pakistan, depending on which team qualifies out of their group.

Both England and Pakistan — the finalists from the previous edition of the tournament, hosted in Australia in 2022 — need results to go their way to qualify, while the US and Scotland have their fate in their own hands.

New Zealand, having lost to Afghanistan and West Indies, are on the brink of elimination and need a red-hot Afghanistan side to lose against Papua New Guinea to stand any chance of advancing.

In South Africa’s group, Sri Lanka were the other favourites to qualify for the next stage of the tournament, but the subcontinent side are yet to register a win after two matches.

That means that Bangladesh and the Netherlands are in the driving seats to secure the second qualification spot. DM

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South Africa

Adapting

Super Eight hopefuls