Hashim Amla hopes South Africa’s slow World Cup start will lead to a reversal of fortunes for a team still seeking their first trophy in the competition’s history.
The Proteas have never reached an ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup final and this year they have suffered a disappointing start with three losses from their first three games.
But batsman Amla is searching through history to find a silver lining.
“In the last two World Cups, 2011 and 2015, we started off pretty good and we didn’t win. Maybe this is going the other way around,” he said.
“That’s the belief I have. Maybe this could be the one where we start badly, get a win here and there, get some momentum and change things around. It’s not how you drive, it’s how you arrive.”
What everyone is here for! 🏆😍 #CWC19 pic.twitter.com/2FHLwp0eHb
— Cricket World Cup (@cricketworldcup) June 6, 2019
In 2011, South Africa topped Group B with five wins from their six matches and went on to lose in the quarter-finals to New Zealand.
In 2015, they won five out of seven first-round matches, won their first-ever World Cup knock-out game when they beat Sri Lanka in the quarter-finals and then lost to New Zealand in the last four.
This year the format is different with a league stage in which every one of the 10 teams play each other, so the Proteas are far from out of it.
And Amla hopes that will give the team the space and time they need to turn things around.
“We’ve got to keep things in perspective and take our time to lament over the result and not doing as well as we want to do and then come into the next practice where everybody is in the right space,” he added.
OUT: Hashim Amla, left, reacts after a ball from India's Jasprit Bumrah. Photo: Aijaz Rahi/AP.
In taking the measured approach, Amla acknowledged that South Africa have already played the top two teams in the rankings - England are at No 1 and India at No 2 - which has given them clarity over where they stand.
“We’ve played two of the favourites, two very strong teams and unfortunately we have played pretty average cricket,” he said. “We need to turn it around and play our best cricket.”
“We kind of lost our way a little bit in the middle. Faf [du Plessis] and Rassie [van der Dussen] had a decent partnership building and then we lost our way.”
As a result, South Africa finished on 227, 20 to 30 runs short of what Amla thought would have been a good total on the Hampshire Bowl pitch.
South Africa took the match deep and kept India batting until the 48th over to reach the target, with Rohit Sharma's 122 not out steering them home.
A celebration fitting for an outstanding spell of bowling @KagisoRabada25💪 #ProteaFire #SAvIND #CWC19 pic.twitter.com/rYUAiQulgJ
— Cricket World Cup (@cricketworldcup) June 5, 2019
“Everybody wants to perform," Amla added.
"We are out there, we practice, we do everything to make sure we put some numbers on the board and the bowlers are doing their thing. We are all disappointed."
African News Agency