Proteas on their own journey, and don’t feel any extra pressure to do World Cup double, says Rob Walter

The Proteas will draw inspiration from the Springboks’ World Cup win, but Rob Walter says the cricketers won’t feel any added pressure to do “a double”. 

“Winning the Cricket World Cup means as much now as before. I don’t think it has become any bigger because the Boks have won,” said the Proteas head coach.

“That Springbok side continues to inspire and give hope; they do exactly that for us. To see what they have done, the levels they have reached, is inspirational for us. Hopefully that can be the thing that is a catalyst for us moving forward, even more than the cricket we have played already.”

While the Proteas have won five out of six matches and set records along the way at the Cricket World Cup, their campaign has largely been overshadowed by the Boks’ remarkable journey through the Rugby World Cup. Walter expects that will change. “It feels like the media attention will shift to us now,” he said.

How to use the energy created by Siya Kolisi’s men — especially the manner of their run through the play-off phase in France — did crop up as a topic for discussion in the Proteas’ team meetings on Monday.

“We have spoken as a team about what we can take from that, as opposed to how it impacts us from a pressure point of view. Rugby is rugby, (the Springboks) have done really well over a long period of time, they’ve doubled up on World Cups, we are yet to get over that line. So we need to take care of our own business and take the lessons and inspiration from the rugby side.”

Temba Bavuma’s team produced its own narrow escape in Chennai last Friday beating Pakistan by one wicket, mimicking what’s been taking place in Paris the last few weeks and Walter explained that the result was important for the team’s self-belief.

“Winning ugly is a thing; and maybe in the past we were guilty of losing those games that we should win, we certainly made tough work of it, a lot tougher than we needed to. However, for me, the most significant part of the win was that the tail showed the responsibility and thinking to get us over the line.”

The other side to the outcome, was the way the front-line batters played. South Africa certainly fought fire with fire, but Walter stressed it was important for the team’s supporters to understand the risks involved in playing in such an aggressive manner. 

“You can’t celebrate the guys scoring 400 and then bemoan guys making errors in an attempt to maintain the way we play the game,” he said.

“There hasn’t been one batter who hasn’t critically analysed his dismissal or performance, and sought to be better.”

Four of South Africa’s top six were dismissed playing attacking shots against Pakistan.

“We can’t climb on top of Heinrich Klaasen for playing an aggressive shot, and then celebrate when he scores 170 off 80 balls, that is the method he has used. What we want him to do is continuously assess where he is at, where the conditions are at, who is competing against and then take the best option in front of him,” Walter explained.

“We are not robots and we will get that wrong from time to time.”