South Africa's Heinrich Klaasen relaxed ahead of England super 8's
20/06/2024
Daren Sammy National Cricket Stadium, Gros Islet
20/06/2024
Daren Sammy National Cricket Stadium, Gros Islet
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00:00How do you think the team is feeling at the moment, finally getting to play outside of
00:10the U.S. and perhaps some conditions that you might enjoy a little bit more?
00:15Yeah, I think it was a good run-out today.
00:20Properly because I thought we had a poor score against the U.S.A. and our bowler's got to
00:27put a little bit under the pump at the back end of the game, so it was a good outing for
00:33the batters.
00:34I think the batters needed it more than the bowlers.
00:37Guys getting their swings again, it was quite difficult in America.
00:43And looking around, the Caribbean, the wickets are getting better and better, but we don't
00:47keep our hopes up.
00:48Hopefully we can get a good wicket in St. Lucia.
00:51Is the fact that you've had a couple of close scraps in the group stages in particular,
00:55and they put you under a bit of pressure, the U.S., does that maybe stand you in good
01:01stead as conditions maybe, particularly for some of your power hitters like yourself,
01:08that kind of suit you a little bit?
01:10Yes.
01:11I think the U.S. part of the tournament has done the team a lot of good, in my eyes.
01:17We played high-pressure situations quite well and we took a lot of learning from it.
01:21So on good wickets, the guys look like they're keeping calm and they know their game plans
01:25and it's all about execution.
01:28I don't think against the U.S. our death eating was particularly great.
01:35They bowled extremely well and we're looking forward to finding our swings again and hopefully
01:40we can cash in against England.
01:43Well speaking of England, obviously defending champions, you wouldn't say they've set the
01:49tournament alight so far.
01:53So how do you go into that knowing that you've got the chance to knock over the defending
01:58champions?
01:59Yeah, they had an indifferent tournament with a lot of rain and rain affected games.
02:05But they're an extremely dangerous side.
02:07They've got a lot of match winners and we need to be aware of that and play our big
02:11moments better than what they do.
02:13But cricket is a fighting game like we saw this whole World Cup so far.
02:17So hopefully we can continue our trend of playing good cricket under pressure and it
02:23will be fantastic if we, as South Africa, can go two out of two and hopefully close
02:28the spot for the semi-finals for ourselves.
02:33Given it's a 20-team tournament and we've got down to eight, it's also meant that there
02:39hasn't really been a whole lot of attention on any one particular side.
02:43Maybe someone like the USA who have made such headlines in the tournament thus far.
02:48Have you guys enjoyed the fact that things are quite large and there hasn't been a lot
02:53of attention on, say, tournament hopes or aspirations or anything like that?
02:56You can just focus on the next opponent, that being England tomorrow?
03:01Yeah, normally we don't focus a lot on all the media stuff and what's happening.
03:06We always take it game for game.
03:09The group that we were in at the start of the World Cup, those teams are extremely dangerous
03:14in knockout tournaments.
03:16So we had a tough tournament to start off with, tough games to play and they put us
03:21under some big pressure moments that we played well in.
03:24So we take confidence from those type of things and we're not too worried about the media.
03:30Our team has been through enough the last four years.
03:34The guys are in good shape and they're really looking forward to the next phase of the tournament
03:38and hopefully we can book another semi-final for ourselves.
03:42In a similar vein to Mel's question as well, looking at, say, an undefeated start, but
03:48I think you guys could probably, if you're honest with yourselves, say that you probably
03:51haven't played the perfect game yet.
03:53Is it comforting to know that you're still finding a way to grind and get the results
03:57and then once you do hit your straps and time your run, you can beat anyone really?
04:00Yeah, I think that's the big positive for us so far.
04:03We had four scrappy games that we pulled through.
04:08It wasn't pretty.
04:09Our batters bowled incredibly well in those four or five games now.
04:13So the batters just found a way to scrap and we had to adjust our game plans a little bit.
04:18Hopefully on better wickets we can find our swings and be our natural selves.
04:22So that's the one positive that's still out there for us to go find.
04:27But the rest, the way we've been playing, the way we've been grafting and adapting to
04:31conditions is brilliant and that shows the maturity in the group as well.
04:35So yeah, we're obviously looking forward to that perfect game, but hopefully that will
04:40happen the longer the tournament goes on for us and find it when it really matters.