South Africa fast bowler Kagiso Rabada previews their ICC T20 Cricket World Cup clash with Nepal
Arnos Vale Stadium, St Vincent and the Grenadines, West Indies
Arnos Vale Stadium, St Vincent and the Grenadines, West Indies
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00:00 Welcome to St. Vincent. Good to have you here. South Africa threw two super hits.
00:04 It's been a good tournament of course, two really close wins.
00:08 So what all to look forward to in the game against Nepal?
00:12 Yeah, it's another international match, another fixture and we're not taking them lightly.
00:19 And we're going to try and play some more of the same cricket or even better that we've been playing in the tournament.
00:25 What you've made out of the wicket so far, a bit of a challenge. The bowlers are back into the game it seems.
00:32 Enjoying that, the fact that the bowlers have held the upper hand so far in the tournament?
00:36 As a bowler I must say, yeah, I have enjoyed it, 100%. But conditions will probably level out now.
00:44 The Caribbean experience, you've played cricket here before. What do you think about how different would it be potentially to USA?
00:51 And also the fact that we saw the home team getting incredible support the other night in Trinidad.
00:57 What kind of support do you expect? We saw the end of the game earlier today, both Netherlands and Bangladesh having good support.
01:05 So looking forward to starting the Caribbean leg?
01:08 Yeah, 100%. I don't know how many South African fans are in St. Vincent.
01:13 But however, maybe there are like 10 of them. However many of them there are, hopefully they rock up.
01:20 But I'm not expecting a whole lot of support. Perhaps maybe some of the locals support South Africa.
01:28 So hopefully they can turn out numbers.
01:32 Is the dream for that elusive trophy, of course now getting stronger?
01:36 And we've seen South Africa, you also made it to the semi-finals in the 50-over World Cup.
01:41 This team looks incredibly strong and has been doing really well.
01:45 How is it going? Is it day by day or perhaps it's a target considering the history?
01:51 Not too much in focus, perhaps to focus on a game at a time?
01:57 I believe we're going to win it. And you just have to take it game by game. You can't look too far ahead.
02:04 You played with Sandeep Lami Shaini back in Delhi Derbys. He's back in the Nepal team.
02:11 Do you think his inclusion will have any positive effect in the Nepal team?
02:16 And how are you looking forward to the clash against Nepal?
02:18 Yeah, he's a mystery spinner. So any mystery spinner is going to be tough to play.
02:24 But I know the guys are really looking forward to facing that challenge.
02:31 In New York, the batters didn't get the chance to open up. But this is a different pitch.
02:37 We've seen today's match as well. How do you see your middle order stacking up with the exports in the IPL?
02:43 Do you think this is the right time for them to open up their arms and get some runs in?
02:47 I actually haven't really seen how the wicket played. I haven't seen the game yet.
02:51 But according to the nets, there's going to be some turn and it's going to be a bit slow.
02:57 But I'm sure the guys are getting to grips with how the wicket is playing and already forming game plans
03:04 as to how they're going to combat any plans that are formed against us.
03:12 Hi, Kagi. Congratulations for going into the Super 8.
03:17 As a team, when you play a qualifier like Nepal, what basically goes through the mind of a big cricketing nation
03:25 like South Africa? What's your plan for tomorrow?
03:29 As a cricketing nation, how much does South Africa know about Nepal?
03:33 To be honest, I don't know a fair amount about how they play.
03:39 But we have our analysis and we will do our homework.
03:43 But I know that they've been playing more and more over the past number of years.
03:52 And it's good to see in the game of cricket that it's growing.
03:57 Like I said earlier, it's not a game that we're going to take lightly. Not at all. We can't take it lightly.
04:05 You talked about 10 South African fans there. We met around 100 Nepali fans already in St. Vincent.
04:12 So you can expect their support as well.
04:15 Oh, okay.
04:20 Kagiso, just about the format of the tournament. 20 teams competing.
04:24 What's your take on the format? We've seen some incredible upsets already.
04:28 So enjoying this gathering of so-called lesser nations, but they're very much punching above their weight, it seems.
04:36 And giving a really tough run to the full members.
04:39 I think, like I said earlier, cricket is growing.
04:43 And not only by the amount of teams that are there, but also with a world event being hosted in America.
04:54 The West Indies, the different countries in the West Indies are not foreign to hosting world events.
05:02 But especially with the inclusion of the USA and teams like Uganda, teams like Oman,
05:08 who have come on and had their chance to shine on the stage, shows that cricket is growing.
05:14 You really hope that the fan engagement can grow around the world.
05:21 You hope that not all eyes will be on the biggest teams, but hopefully they can grow too.
05:30 Cricket can be a real-world event.
05:34 Finally, about your batters. You've got an incredible batting lineup.
05:39 Some incredibly explosive players who have done really well around the world in various competitions.
05:44 What's the mood like in the batting camp, especially with the pitches perhaps not being too conducive?
05:49 Are they getting itchy for the big scores? Do they really want to flex their muscles and hit those big sixes?
05:54 Any suggestions from you to them as to how they can perhaps go on with their business in the upcoming days?
06:02 You want me to say this in a press conference?
06:06 I think that the guys are really keen for the challenge.
06:12 With us, it's just about winning.
06:15 Whether we score 96 and win or whether we score 296 and win, at the end of the day it's about the W.
06:23 That's what we've done so far.
06:25 But I do expect that conditions are going to level up.
06:30 You had the drop-in pitches in the USA.
06:33 You never really know how they're going to play.
06:36 We had a full idea of how they play.
06:41 Now you've actually got squares that have been there for years, here in these venues.
06:49 You'll probably see more competitive scores.
06:54 You look at the game between Australia and England where 200 played 150.
07:02 If you do bat well in these conditions, you can still reach 200.
07:08 But you want to get a game and find pitches where you have enough in it for the bowlers and enough in it for the batters.
07:19 Because that's essentially what a cricket game is.
07:22 Otherwise, you might as well just call it batting or you might as well call it bowling.
07:28 But you can't really judge the guys' form on wickets that we've just played on.
07:40 It's not an excuse, but common sense would prevail and you would say that you can't really blame the batters.
07:51 I've been saying that. No one's got any demons.
07:55 Everyone's moving forward. We play the conditions as we see them.
07:59 On our day, we know the sky's the limit in terms of batting.
08:04 Thank you very much, Prezo and Lucy, and all the very best for the game.