<\/p>\n
South Africa skipper Temba Bavuma on Wednesday warned they are not up against a \u201cMickey Mouse team\u201d in their World Cup semi-final against Australia amid feverish expectation of reaching their first championship match.<\/p>\n
The Proteas won seven<\/a> of their nine league matches to finish second in the 10-team table to book a final-four clash in Kolkata on Thursday.<\/p>\n That run included a 134-rout of the Australians<\/a> at Lucknow four weeks ago.<\/p>\n Five-time champions Australia are coming off seven straight wins<\/a> at the tournament.<\/p>\n \u201cA lot of people believe that this could be the year that we see ourselves in the final,\u201d Bavuma, who remains doubtful of playing the semi-final due to his hamstring injury, told reporters.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019d like nothing better than that. But we also respect the game of cricket. We\u2019re not coming up against a Mickey Mouse team. Australia have a lot of experience and confidence in knockout games like this, so we\u2019ve got to respect that.\u201d<\/p>\n The most shocking World Cup exit for South Africa was their 1999 semi-final loss to Australia after the match in Birmingham ended in a tie and their rivals went through due to a better group finish.<\/p>\n Australia also easily came out on top in a 2007 semi-final clash between the teams in the Caribbean.<\/p>\n Bavuma said the mindset of his team remains confident ahead of the knockout contest. \u201cFrom a skill point of view, from a physical point of view, the guys are quite confident,\u201d said Bavuma.<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s a sense of calmness within the team and obviously the normal level of anxiety that you would expect of going into the game tomorrow.\u201d<\/p>\n He added: \u201cBut I think we\u2019ll take a lot of confidence with our performances up until this point.\u201d<\/p>\n Bavuma said he will look to play two frontline spinners, Keshav Maharaj and Tabraiz Shamsi at Kolkata\u2019s Eden Gardens.<\/p>\n \u201cObviously, Keshav and Shamsi. We have Aiden (Markram) as well, who also gives us an option there. Then I think it\u2019s just finalising in terms of the three seamers, who that may be,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Maharaj, a left-arm orthodox bowler, has claimed 14 wickets in nine matches while left-arm wrist-spinner Shamsi has seven off just three games.<\/p>\n Bavuma also praised wicketkeeper-batsman Quinton de Kock for leading the batting charge with his 591 runs, second only to India\u2019s Virat Kohli.<\/p>\n \u201cQuinton\u2019s been magnificent for us,\u201d said Bavuma. De Kock, 30, will quit one-day international cricket when this tournament is over.<\/p>\n Bavuma said South Africa\u2019s cricketers are taking inspiration from the Springboks\u2019 second straight Rugby World Cup title last month in their quest for global glory in India.<\/p>\n \u201cI think to a large degree we look at them in awe, the Springboks and how they\u2019ve gone about their back-to-back wins within the World Cup,\u201d said Bavuma.<\/p>\n \u201cObviously, the way they won it this year with the knockout games being quite close and again how that resilience, how that do-or-die attitude came through.<\/p>\n \u201cThat\u2019s what we\u2019ve been speaking about as a team that when the crunch moment comes, when the pressure moments come, we come together as a team and we find a way to get over the line.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" South Africa skipper Temba Bavuma on Wednesday warned they are not up against a \u201cMickey Mouse team\u201d in their World Cup semi-final against Australia amid feverish expectation of reaching their first championship match. The Proteas won seven of their nine league matches to finish second in the 10-team table to book a final-four clash in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":24958,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/i.dawn.com\/large\/2023\/11\/1516140979a2454.jpg?r=161547","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-24957","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-pakistan"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\tSpringboks inspiration<\/h2>\n
\n\u201cAt one point he was the leading World Cup scorer as well. Knowing Quinton, I don\u2019t think he\u2019s really paying much attention to all of that. I think his focus is on contributing as best as he can for the team.\u201d<\/p>\n