World Cup: Lack of experience in focus as South Africa gear up for semis | Cricket News

AHMEDABAD: South Africa and Australia are set to face off in the semifinal at the Eden Gardens on Thursday, with the Proteas having secured a convincing victory over the men from Down Under by 134 runs in their league stage match last month.
While South Africa last reached the semifinal in 2015, the current squad has limited experience in knockout stages.
In contrast, Australia have won the title on five occasions and in recent times they have clinched the 2015 ODI World Cup and the T20 World Cup in 2021.
Reflecting on the upcoming semifinal, South African batter Rassie Van der Dussen acknowledged the disparity in experience, saying, “I think it (the semifinal) will probably be different in the sense that a lot of their guys have been in those situations before and have a good reference of how it is having won the World Cup and having played in the semifinal two (four) years ago,” said Van der Dussen, who has aggregated 442 runs with two centuries in this tournament.
“So, in terms of that, they’ll probably know what it’s about a bit more I suppose, but it’s on the day, it’s what team rocks up, what team is switched on, what team executes their plans.”
Despite the varying experience levels, van der Dussen emphasized that the outcome depends on the team’s performance on the day, their focus, and execution of plans.
Maintaining a “must-win” mindset, he highlighted the team’s approach throughout the tournament, stating, “From the start, it’s been almost like a must-win type of mindset for us. So, I don’t think too much will be different. I think it will be a good game. They’re a great team.”
It’s for this reason that the 34-year-old from Pretoria said South Africa would’ve chased even if they had won the toss against Afghanistan on Friday.
“I think coming into this match we wanted to put ourselves in that situation. So if we won the toss we would have bowled anyway, because we wanted to put ourselves in that situation, knowing that they’ve got a really strong spin attack especially. I think it was largely controlled. There were one or two nervous moments,” he said.
When asked if opposition teams would still ask South Africa to chase to target them, he said, “The win-loss ratio looks pretty good in our favour when we bat first and I think it’s pretty much 50-50 when we chase. The risk I suppose you run is that if there’s dew then you’re going to have to bowl with dew.”
Meanwhile, captain Temba Bavuma struggled with a niggle in the field. Asked about his injury, he said, “It’s not ideal, obviously. He was obviously struggling a bit but the type of character Temba is, he wanted to stay out there,” said van der Dussen.