Temba Bavuma has been a liability to South Africa with the bat in the ongoing ICC Men's ODI World Cup 2023. Bavuma is yet to score a half-century in the tournament and playing in the semifinal not fully fit he disappointed again. The Proteas skipper got dismissed for a four-ball duck in the high-voltage encounter against Australia exposing his team in the overcast conditions.
Bavuma has scored 145 runs from eight innings at an average of 18.1 which is second-worst for a South Africa batter (1 to 7) in the World Cup with more than 100 runs. Only Adrian Kuiper has a worse average. He scored 113 runs from eight innings at an average of 16.1.
Shaun Pollock who used to bat down the order has a better average of 20.4 with 184 runs from 13 innings. Bavuma's best performance with the bat came against Australia in Lucknow where he scored 35 runs.
Bavuma missed two matches due to injury against England and Bangladesh. Reeza Hendricks replaced him in the side and scored 97 runs including a 85-run knock against England at Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai.
There were calls to drop an underperforming Bavuma in the side for the semifinal clash.
"Physically, I feel alright, obviously not 100 per cent. I can't tell you medically, but I think for me from a feeling point of view, that's what I can attest to,” Bavuma said in the pre-match press conference.
“I'm quite confident, but I mean, it's not a unilateral decision that will be made. In a state of mind, obviously a bit nervous about the game.”
Bavuma also admitted that he is not among runs but says that he has got confidence by getting South Africa off to good starts with Quinton de Kock.
“Yes, I haven't scored the bulk of the runs within the team. Got it in quite a couple of times, haven't converted. So, I guess from that point of view, also knowing that I play a key role with Quinton up top in terms of our partnership, we've been involved in a couple of 50 plus partnerships, so I take a lot of confidence in that,” the 33-year-old further explained.
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