Proteas opener Reeza Hendricks is hoping the runs will start to flow when they face USA at the Sir Vivian Richards Stadium in Antigua today at 4.30pm.
Hendricks and the rest of South Africa’s top order has not enjoyed a good T20 World Cup to date, yet the team won all four of their group matches heading into today’s Super 8 opener against the tournament’s co-hosts and surprise package USA.
With pitches favouring bowlers thus far, Hendricks says: “It has been challenging. As a batter you want to go out there and score runs, so it can be frustrating.
“But it seems like that’s the nature of the wickets [in the tournament]. We would have loved to have scored more runs than we did and hopefully going forward can get onto better pitches and the batters can score some runs.”
The Proteas could go into the match with two spinners - picking both Keshav Maharaj and Tabraz Shamsi.
But whatever the composition of the side, Hendricks says they won’t underestimate America, who stunned Pakistan in the group stage.
Fun In The Sun ☀️
— Proteas Men (@ProteasMenCSA) June 18, 2024
Our Proteas spent some quality team-bonding time on the beaches of Antigua playing volleyball. 🇿🇦
Catching those rays off the field before bringing the heat on it! 🔥#OutOfThisWorld #T20WorldCup#BePartOfIt #WozaNawe pic.twitter.com/ljMFZnbQ4u
He explains: “At this stage [of the competition] you can’t take any team lightly. They did well to beat Pakistan.
“We won’t take them lightly and will approach it like any other team we play