(Reuters) – South Africa are expecting a batter’s paradise when they face old rivals England at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai on Saturday, with both sides needing to bounce back from unexpected defeats in their last Cricket World Cup pool encounters.
England lost to Afghanistan by 69 runs and South Africa were toppled by Netherlands to put the brakes on their excellent start to the tournament. Both will be eager to get back into gear on what has traditionally been a fine wicket for batting.
“The guys that have played here before have spoken about how it can be a batter’s paradise. You get value for your shots and the ball seems to travel further,” South Africa captain Temba Bavuma told reporters on Friday.
“It can build a lot of confidence. And if it is your day, you can fill your boots.”
Both teams have excellent hitters in their top six, with the return of Ben Stokes from injury a big plus for England.
“He is an x-factor player,” Bavuma said. “He is a guy that can change the course of the game and is someone we have covered in our preparation. We know we are going to have to be at the top of our game to get him unstuck.”
South Africa were poor at the back end of their bowling effort against Netherlands and then started tentatively with the bat as they succumbed to a 38-run loss.
“We’ve had hard conversations as a team and where things went wrong for us from a batting, bowling and fielding point of view. We’ve put that behind us,” Bavuma said.
“We also acknowledge the fact that in the last couple of months, we have played a lot of good cricket. So it’s not to overlook that and allow one ‘blip’ in our game to override everything that we’ve done.
“It’s easy to second-guess yourselves, second-guess your processes and your game, so it’s not to forget all the good work that we’ve done.”
(Reporting by Nick Said; Editing by Alex Richardson)
