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South Africa is ready to face India in a big match after winning four in a row. Rassie van der Dussen, an in-form batter, is confident in their team. They recently beat New Zealand by 190 runs in the ODI World Cup on November 1. Now, they'll play against India, who hasn't lost a game yet, in Kolkata on November 5. Van der Dussen says they're well-prepared for this important match.
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"Obviously, playing India in India is a massive event. They've been playing really well. A lot of experience in their team. They've got all bases covered, brilliant bowling attack and obviously the batting as well," said Van der Dussen during the post-match press conference here on November 1.
"But again, we'll go into that game knowing that if we do the things that we want to do, we'll be in a really strong position.
"The challenge is to be under pressure, to stay with that, and that's what we'll look to do. But we've played them here before and we've beaten them here before.
"So, in a sense, even though it's a World Cup, it's not really too different. We won't be looking at that too much," he added.
Despite coming close several times, South Africa has never won a major trophy. However, in this ODI World Cup, they are in excellent form, recording three of the six highest scores in this tournament.
"What we've done really well in this campaign is we're really just focusing on what we want to do and how we want to play it," said van der Dussen, who smashed 133 off 118 balls against New Zealand for his second ton this World Cup.
"In our match review meetings, we keep looking at the numbers with the coaches and so far in this tournament, by most metrics, we're stacking up pretty well.
"So, at the end of the day, it's almost irrelevant who's in front of you. We know if we play the way we want to play and execute how we want to and take the correct options, especially under pressure, then the result is a byproduct of that”, he added.
South Africa's strong batting lineup has been their key asset, as they have had the lowest number of dot balls and the highest number of boundaries among all teams in this tournament.
"I think that's a result of what we want to do when we're out in the middle. We talk about what's -- assessing conditions and what's the correct option and always having the correct intent”, he further added.
"And that sort of differs throughout the innings, your options, and your intent. But we know if we can tick those boxes, naturally you put yourself in a better position to score and to be in positions to manoeuvre the ball where you want to”, he continued.
"We don't really look to tick those boxes per se, but I think they tell a story in hindsight of where we are and how we want to go about it I suppose”, the Proteas batsman concluded.
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