Proteas aim to play with freedom against Kiwis

Although there has not been much evidence of it from the Proteas thus far, opening batsman Quinton de Kock says South Africa will be aiming to come out and play with freedom in what is probably the first of four knockout fixtures for them as they take on New Zealand at Edgbaston in Birmingham on Wednesday.

De Kock himself has not been in absolute peak form but there have been enough encouraging signs in a pair of 68s against England and Afghanistan to suggest he will be a key factor on Wednesday.

A watchful start in Cardiff saw him score 28 runs off his first 36 balls, and in his next 36 he scored more fluently, adding 40 his score.

“We’re not really thinking of it as the biggest game we’ve played in the last four years, I mean it’s obviously a big game, but the next three games will all be big anyway. For the rest of the tournament they’re all going to be big games. We just have to go out, keep our heads steady and play freely. We’re up against tough competition in New Zealand but we’ll be trying our best.

“It’s a quarterfinal and if we do win then there’s another big game after that. We can’t just focus on tomorrow. Before the first game, we were also in a good space, both mentally and in terms of preparation, but then when you lose all the time, there’s a bit of a slump in your mental strength. But after winning again, we have high hopes and we’re pretty confident at the moment.

“To play freely works differently for every guy, which is why you prepare by yourself. For me it’s about playing my natural game, nothing’s different and I just play it as I see it. I just try and keep it simple, that’s the way I prepare; everyone just keeps doing whatever they’ve been doing. We need to be mentally strong, that’s the only thing that needs to change,” De Kock said at Edgbaston on Tuesday.

Given that the overall record of South Africa in ODIs against New Zealand reads 41 wins against just 24 losses, but they have lost five of their seven World Cup meetings, it is obvious something changes in the mentality of both teams at the premier cricket tournament as compared to in bilateral series.

“New Zealand are a big team in World Cups, they always step up and they’re playing very well at the moment. They’re pretty mellow and relaxed guys but always competitive, I’m sure they’ll come out firing and have a lot of confidence. I highly doubt they’ll be complacent. But we’ve played them so many times that we know what we’ll get, we know exactly what we’re up against.

“But we’ve been a pretty successful ODI team the rest of the time, it’s just handling all the pressures of the World Cup. I don’t know why the World Cup record is so different but I’ve only been part of a beaten team once so it’s a clean slate, we’re not worried about how many times we’ve beaten them or we’ve lost to them. It just comes down to tomorrow,” De Kock said.

And that is obviously true for South Africa’s entire World Cup campaign as well.

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