Proteas were only at 70%, says Rassie

South Africa weren’t good enough with bat and ball in their World Cup opener against England and need to get down to business post-haste when they take on Bangladesh back at The Oval on Sunday, according to Rassie van der Dussen.

The Proteas were hammered by 104 runs by the hosts at the same London venue on Thursday and, with India lying in wait in Southampton on Wednesday as their third game, the Bangladesh outing has become a must-win encounter if South Africa are not to possibly slump to a zero-from-three record that will leave them under immense pressure just to make the semi-finals after the first week of the tournament.

“There were a few nerves floating around and it was disappointing that we were only at about 70% with both ball and bat. England bowled a bit better than us, they were very disciplined with their plans, and we could have been better with the bat, that wasn’t good enough. We were not where we want to be in that first game.

“It was just the first game though, a stepping stone, and we want to peak at the back end of the tournament. But we’ve got to get down to doing our jobs now. Our games are all in a good space, we’ve worked hard and we know where we are, we just need to top up on our skills before the Bangladesh game,” Van der Dussen said after scoring a valiant 50 off 61 deliveries against England.

South Africa were chasing a reasonable target of 312 against England, but a top-class new-ball burst by Jofra Archer, who looks set to become a workldwide sensation in this World Cup, meant it was always going to be a hard slog.

The Barbados-born fast bowler forced Hashim Amla to retire for a concussion check after hitting him on the helmet grille, and then dismissed Aiden Markram and Faf du Plessis in quick succession to leave the Proteas on a wobbly effective score of 44 for three.

“Halfway in the game we were pretty happy with how the first innings went, but then we just lost wickets up front and losing Hash was a big blow. We just kept losing wickets all the time, which makes it difficult to get any momentum. And they weren’t necessarily unplayable deliveries that were getting us out, it was just about the way we were thinking and a lack of execution.

“I faced five deliveries from Archer and three of them were slower balls. He’s quite tall, a tricky customer with a really upright action, so he’s all about bounce, a bit like Morne Morkel. It’s a tough one to just decide not to pull or hook when you’re chasing seven an over, you need some options to score. He gets more bounce with the new ball so that’s easier to just let go, but he got me out with an older ball, I saw it all the way but he still did me a bit for pace,” Van der Dussen, who skied his shot to mid-on, admitted afterwards.

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