Van der Dussen says Proteas bases covered for World Cup as Bavuma returns

As the 2023 ICC Cricket World Cup in India fast approaches, Proteas top order batter Rassie van der Dussen says the team has covered all its bases for their quest to make an impression at the tournament. 

The Proteas — who lost their rain-affected warm-up match to New Zealand by seven runs (DLS method) at Greenfield Stadium in Thiruvananthapuram, India on Tuesday — are seen to have one of the best batting line-ups at the tournament.

The Proteas start the World Cup against Sri Lanka in Delhi on Saturday (10.30am) where the focus will be on top and middle order batters Van der Dussen, Quinton de Kock, Reeza Hendricks, Heinrich Klaasen, David Miller, Aiden Markram and Temba Bavuma. 

South Africa's team management indicated captain Bavuma will rejoin the squad on Tuesday in Delhi after he returned home and missed the two warm-up games in India to attend to a family matter. 

“It’s a good place to be. We have played together for a few years now as the batting unit,” Van der Dussen said after the loss where he contributed 51 and De Kock scored 84 as rain left South Africa stranded on 211/4 after 37 overs in their chase of New Zealand’s 321/6. 

“Everyone knows each other’s game very well. We have found a nice blueprint of how to go about it in different conditions, especially in the last few games against Australia. 

“Even though we lost [to New Zealand], we were still confident in our position in the chase. I think we have a good team, all our bases are covered, it is a long tournament and if we play well we will definitely have a chance.” 

Van der Dussen said the Proteas will rely heavily on the knowledge of subcontinent conditions from their man players who have turned out extensively in the Indian Premier League (IPL). Kagiso Rabada, Markram, Miller, Anrich Nortje, Klaasen, Van der Dussen, Marco Jansen and Tabraiz Shamsi have played in the IPL. 

“It is very important. What is probably more important is experience at different venues. We are playing all over the country and every city has its own conditions. 

“With Delhi coming up next, some of the guys have played there a lot and we will learn a lot from them in terms of what a good score is, what the pitch will be doing, will there be dew late at night and all those small things that go into it. 

“The same goes for when we go to Chennai, Hyderabad or wherever else we are going to play.” 

Van der Dussen said there was nothing the Proteas could do about the weather in Thiruvananthapuram, where their warm-up against Afghanistan on Friday was completely rained out. 

“It is what it is, but it’s not too bad. You want to go to a tournament feeling fresh and I suppose the side-effects of not playing matches in the heat is that we are going into Saturday feeling fresh. 

“We expected the rain to come a lot earlier [on Monday], so we are happy with the time we got in the middle. That's why we wanted to bowl first to give the bowlers good spells and good preparations. 

“We saw it was tough with the new ball, we know that in the first 10 overs of the powerplay we were on target. I suppose you don’t want to lose too many wickets there, especially to a guy like Trent Boult because he is known to like to strike early. 

“If we could negotiate him and get out of the powerplay and start playing with a lot more freedom. So the conditions didn’t change too much, the ball was still nipping quite a bit. 

“We saw Klaasen again and some of the shots he played were ridiculous from spin bowling.”