South Africa captain Aiden Markram says they are no longer a little team and is conscious of the threat as they get ready to face the co-host’s America first.
In the current ICC T20 World Cup 2024, South Africa is preparing for the pivotal Super Eight round. After overcoming Sri Lanka, the Netherlands, Bangladesh, and Nepal to win their group, the Proteas now find themselves in a challenging Group 2 with the United States, England, and the West Indies.
In the group stage, the USA stunned everyone by defeating Ireland, Pakistan, and India to go to the Super Eights. They won all of their games against Canada before pulling off a huge upset against Pakistan in a Super Over.
After that, the Americans put India to the test, coming in second in the group behind the Men in Blue. Their elimination from the Irish team in their most recent match guaranteed them a spot in the following round.
Aiden Markram acknowledged that his team must perform at its highest level in order to defeat the undefeated USA squad ahead of the crucial Super Eight opening in Antigua.
Indeed, they’ve been excellent. They and many others, in my opinion, will sort of argue that they are smaller countries, but they are not, and they have demonstrated that they are not, any longer. At the pre-game news conference, he stated, “So, tomorrow we’re going to have to be on 100% of our game too, hopefully for things to go well, but I’m excited about that challenge.”
Fantastic chance and thrilling task for us: Aiden Markram
The prospect of facing Monank Patel and his team in various circumstances excites the South African captain.
“A team that we haven’t played much cricket against so looking forward to that and different conditions here in Antigua as well so all those things sort of together, we probably have to assess pretty quickly and develop plans out there on the pitch that can hopefully do the job for us,” Markram stated.
Markram admitted that he had watched a few moments of the USA team playing when asked if he had followed the campaign carefully. He is mindful of the USA’s threatening batting order, along with their good pace batteries and quality spinners.
To be perfectly honest with you, you haven’t watched a lot of cricket. A good seam attack, a few of quality spinners, and an explosive batting order mean that any one of those men can make life very difficult for you on their day. It’s been fairly hectic, but after watching a few highlights, it looks pretty exciting. In order to counter that and eventually get them out, plans are being made to keep them quiet. However, one more wonderful opportunity and thrilling challenge awaits us tomorrow,” Markram said.
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