Defiant Shamsi convinced Proteas can still fire

South Africa have been under must-win pressure before and they believe they can produce the goods again, according to wrist-spinner Tabraiz Shamsi.

South Africa’s defeat to India in Southampton was their third straight loss in the opening week of the World Cup, leaving them with the near-impossible task of winning all six of their remaining matches to qualify for the semi-finals.

Since losing their must-win game against India at The Oval in the 2017 Champions Trophy, South Africa have won decisive ODIs to win series against Australia and Pakistan.

“The way we look at it is that we’ve only played one-third of the tournament, winning nought-out-of-three is obviously not great, but there’s still two-thirds of the competition to go. We have shown with our record of must-win games lately that there’s no reason we can’t win the next few matches. We won eight of our last nine ODIs before this tournament and we have to believe we can do it again.

“The pressure is always there and it’s about how you handle it. When you’re not winning then obviously it doesn’t look like you’re having much fun, it’s easier when you’re winning. There’s a lot of hurt in the changeroom but I’m sure it’s going to bring positive results. The guys are definitely giving their all, the energy is there and we’re definitely still very positive,” Shamsi said.

Both Shamsi and fellow wrist-spinner Imran Tahir went wicketless against India, but the understudy was confident things will go better against the West Indies in Southampton on Monday in the Proteas’ next game, partly because the Caribbean team will be trying to attack them more.

“The West Indies are more aggressive where India are more measured and don’t take many risks, the West Indies will try and manufacture something. They’re going to come hard and we just need to be brave and back our skills. You always have a chance when the batsmen are taking risks, they’re not going to just work it around, which is exciting and I know Imran feels the same.

“When the batsmen take chances is when as a bowler you can get a lot of reward. But you’ve got to be brave. It’s exciting to bowl against batsmen like that and I want to try and do something great to help the team win the game, even though conditions in England are not that favourable towards spin and teams like India are very good players of spin,” Shamsi said.

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