Aiden Markram, the captain of South Africa, is optimistic that the Caribbean’s venues will be “better to bat” on after his team’s bowlers had to save them during the group stage when their hitters failed to deliver.
When South Africa played Asian teams Bangladesh, Nepal, and Sri Lanka in the group stage, they were unable to score more than 120 runs.
In the opening match of the Super 8 of the current T20 World Cup, South Africa will take on the daring co-hosts, the USA, on Wednesday. Before the match, Markram spoke about his batting struggles. He expressed optimism that hitters will eventually find their rhythm while also mentioning that he is still mindful of the spin threat in the Caribbean.
“I think, hopefully, it’s on the side of new conditions and a lot of excitement and buzz around that but guys are only humans. If you’ve not been scoring runs, you tend to maybe search for your first 5–10 balls of innings. But it’s about backing the fact that if you get through that phase, hit a couple of good shots, and it automatically brings that feel-good factor back to you and sort of just runs with it from there,” Markram said in the pre-match press conference.
“So hopefully the conditions are better to bat. I think they’re still going to be challenging but potentially the opposite side of the scale in terms of them might spin a bit more now. Obviously, in New York, there was none of that, but having the game, the plans, and the options from a batting unit point of view in your locker, but more importantly, feeling the bravery and the courage to bring them out if need be if the wicket is turning like that,” he added.
Aiden Markram warns the USA ‘not a small team anymore’:
According to South African captain Aiden Markram, his squad must perform at its peak if they are to defeat surprise package USA, who believe they are no longer a minor team.
When the USA team emerged victorious from Group A, which comprised both India and Pakistan, everyone was taken aback. After a thrilling chase to overcome Canada in their opening match, the USA pulled off a major upset over Pakistan in a super-over.
“Yeah, they’ve been really good I think not just them but a lot of the people will sort of say smaller nations, but they’re not and they’ve proved that they’re not anymore. So, we’re going to 100% be on our best game tomorrow too, hopefully for things to go well, but I’m excited about that challenge,” Aiden Markram said.
“A team that we haven’t played much cricket against so looking forward to that and different conditions here in Antigua as well, all those things sort of together, we probably have to assess pretty quickly and develop plans out there on the field that can hopefully do the job for us,” Aiden Markram added.
