Africa-Press – South-Africa. The Proteas’ automatic 2023 World Cup qualification hopes hang by a thread after Friday’s 38-run loss to Bangladesh at SuperSport Park in Centurion and this is something their leader Temba Bavuma is aware of.
The Proteas may have beaten India 3-0 at the start of the year in their ODI engagement, but that success didn’t contribute any ICC World Cup ODI Super League points.
The series against Bangladesh does and when it comes to collecting ODI Super League points, the Proteas haven’t been flashy in that department.
They’ve only won three out of their 11 ODI Super League games, a predicament that leaves them in 11th place with 39 points.
They’ll need to win the remaining two games to remove the West Indies from eighth-place and while they still have matches against Australia, England, India, and the Netherlands before their die is cast.
However, that’s not a given considering their poor ODI Super League form and should they fail to make the top eight cut, they’ll have to take part in a qualifying tournament consisting of five other teams that didn’t make the cut, along with five other lower division sides for the two remaining World Cup spots out of the 10.
Bavuma said it wasn’t clear to him as to where they are from a points perspective, but knows they need to win the second ODI on Sunday at the Wanderers.
“In terms of the points, I’m not too sure where that leaves us, but what I do know is that Sunday is a must-win game for us,” Bavuma said.
“We’re going to have to up our game in all the different departments, so if we do that, that’ll look after the points we require.
“There are no guaranteed points just because we’re playing Bangladesh. We need to play good cricket and play the cricket that we know we can.”
One of the issues Bavuma will have to avoid from a points deduction perspective is a sluggish over-rate.
The Proteas were 29 minutes behind schedule in Friday’s 38-run loss, but that partly had to do with Shakib Al Hasan’s leg injury that needed attention.
While Bavuma agreed their slow over-rate wasn’t their fault, it’s something that’ll have to be addressed on Sunday.
“When you’re behind the over-rate, that’s a general indication of your intensity on the field,” Bavuma said.
“It’s something that we did speak about and something we want to focus on. So if we’re guilty of being behind the over-rate, that’s something that we’ll have to speak about.”
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