After taking New York by storm in the T20 World Cup, South Africa’s batsmen can’t wait to play some cricket in the Caribbean.
Captain Aiden Markram and his teammates became the first team to qualify for the Super 8s of the tournament when they beat Bangladesh by four runs in a thrilling Group D encounter on Sunday.
That victory brought their tally to three wins from as many games at the Nassau County International Cricket Stadium in the US.
Usually they would’ve been happy to stay at such a happy hunting ground. But the pitch in the US has produced low scores throughout the tournament, leading to a number of complaints from players, fans and pundits alike.
Such is the nature of that pitch that the 113/6 South Africa scored against Bangladesh was their lowest-ever successfully defended total in T20 cricket.
Down and out at 23/4 at one stage, it was the heroics of Heinrich Klaasen with his 46 runs off 44 balls that got them to that score in the end.
The Proteas then pakked their tassies for the West Indies after that victory, where they’ll play their final group match before the Super 8s against Nepal this Saturday.
And Klaasen can’t wait, saying: “I think all the batters are keen to get out of this place, to be fair. The bowlers would love to stay here, but no we’ve done our job, that was the goal to win three out of three here.
“Obviously, it was a little bit harder than what we thought, but that’s also good preparation for going into the next phase of this competition.
“We’ve dealt with pressure very well in these three games and it’s always good experience and you can put it in a notebook and always go back when the tough times are there again.”
Spinner Maharaj, who defended 11 runs in the final over to finish the match with bowling figures of 3/27, is also happy with the strength of the Proteas’ mentality.
He adds: “From our team perspective, often in [pressure] situations in these types of tournaments we haven’t crossed over the line.
“But it’s good to see the character come out in the various games – it’s encouraging to see…
“In the West Indies, there are slightly different conditions, so we are looking forward to that.”