Second round of T20 World Cup is a ‘fresh start’ for Proteas, says Markram

After getting through a wobbly opening round, captain Aiden Markram says the Proteas are looking at the Super 8 stage of the T20 World Cup as a new beginning.

The SA team won four closely contested games in the group stages to progress to the second round of the competition.

They will open their Super 8 campaign against tournament co-hosts the United States in Antigua on Wednesday (4.30pm SA time).

“We’re excited for the Super 8s and we’re seeing it as a completely fresh start, so we’re looking forward to the challenge,” Markram said.

Looking ahead

Following Wednesday’s fixture, the Proteas are scheduled to face reigning T20 World Cup champions England in Saint Lucia on Friday, before returning to Antigua to square up against two-time former champions West Indies on Sunday.

Markram said they were hoping to take as much as they could from the conditions in Wednesday’s game in an attempt to hit back against the West Indies, who beat the Proteas in a three-match T20 series on the eve of the World Cup.

“It is important to get as much info as you can from each game, which can definitely help you moving forward,” the skipper said.

“We’ve got the West Indies here in a few days time, and the time of the game (on Sunday) is different being a day-night game, but I still think there is quite a bit of information you can take and hopefully we can get enough information against the USA to fine-tune players moving forward into that West Indies game.”

Wide open contest

Some upsets had been caused in the opening round of the tournament, with the likes of Pakistan and New Zealand missing out on the Super 8 stage, while Afghanistan and the US had progressed.

Markram felt the Proteas had the ability to stand up and deliver in what was a more wide open World Cup contest than usual in challenging conditions.

They were not getting ahead of themselves, however, with a lot of cricket still to be played ahead of the playoffs.

“We feel like for the last couple of years we’ve been playing good cricket, and we had a really good 50-over World Cup last year (where they reached the semifinals) and took a lot of confidence from that,” Markram said.

“So we’re trying to time our run perfectly, and obviously things don’t always work out perfectly, but if we can start putting complete games of cricket together moving forward, we’ll give ourselves a crack at reaching the semifinals, and then you’re only two good games away from doing something really special.

“The guys are still really fizzed up about the thought of doing that (lifting the trophy) but we have some pretty big games this week for us to be able to get into that position and have that opportunity.”