FIGHTING FOR PRIDE: ‘Proteas to honour badge v Ireland’
|Published
FOUND OUR MOJO: Rassie van der Dussen
Rassie van der Dussen and his Proteas pals are on a mission to restore lost pride when they tackle Ireland at the Sheikh Zayed Stadium in the United Arab Emirates at (1.30pm) today.
Already secured of the ODI series win after winning the first two matches by 139 runs and 174 runs respectively, the Proteas want to be at their ruthless best again in the third and final match of their UAE tour.
Playing to a 1-1 draw in the T20Is against the Irish and also losing the ODI series 2-1 to Afghanistan on the UAE trip, South African cricket has lost some aansien in die wêreld.
But with Ryan Rickelton (91), Tristan Stubbs (79) and Lizaad Williams (4/32) starring in last week’s first ODI and with Stubbs 112*, Kyle Verreynne (67) and Williams (3/36) breeking Ierland in the second, they are making their stemme dik again.
And with regular captain Temba Bavuma ruled out with an elbow injury and replaced by Reeza Hendricks, who was flown in from South Africa for one match only, stand-in leader Van der Dussen is honger to destroy the Iere today.
Van der Dussen explains: “It’s good to be back to winning ways.
“The series or this leg of the series in the UAE has been a bit stop-start from a results point of view.
“A few days ago, before the [ODI] series, we just had a bit of a realignment within the squad in terms of talking about what exactly we want out of this tour...
One More To Go! 🏏 🇿![CDATA[]]>🇦
— Proteas Men (@ProteasMenCSA) October 7, 2024
After sealing the series with back-to-back victories, the Proteas Men aim to finish strong in the final ODI against Ireland. 💪
📺 Catch the action LIVE on Supersport!#WozaNawe #BePartOfIt #SAvsIRE pic.twitter.com/dWoPzchu9F
“In the games against Ireland we’ve managed to do that – we’ve put in performances that we’re proud of as a team and the sole focus going into the third one is to repeat that.”
Middle-order batsman Van der Dussen adds of exactly what it is they want: “The realignment was just about getting back to the standards and the values and how we want to portray to the people watching...
“It’s not just about winning, but in the way we play and the message we are portraying is to get that pride in our performance back again.”