Proteas ‘ready to go’ against bogey team at T20 World Cup

Gearing up to face their bogey team, Proteas spin bowler Keshav Maharaj insists the Proteas squad aren’t feeling any extra strain forward of their T20 World Cup match against the Netherlands in New York on Saturday (4.30pm SA time).

At the final version of the T20 World Cup in Australia two years in the past, the Proteas had been dumped out by the Netherlands after being handed a 13-run defeat of their Super 12 group.

And they fell to the Dutch facet within the group phases of final 12 months’s 50-over World Cup, with the lads in orange once more punching above their weight against their fancied opponents.

While they defeated Sri Lanka of their opening match of the continuing showpiece at Nassau County Stadium earlier within the week, the Proteas can’t afford to slip up against the Netherlands once more, in a World Cup group which additionally consists of big killers Bangladesh.

‘Ready to go’

Maharaj, nevertheless, mentioned they had been assured of choosing up their second victory of the match as they set their sights on the following spherical.

“We’ve got a new regime of coaches and things so they’ve brought fresh ideas to the table, and the boys are ready to go,” mentioned Maharaj, who took 2/22 against Sri Lanka.

“I think we come with a lot of confidence from the previous game, but this is a new game so we’re going back to the drawing board and repeating our processes and plans, and hopefully it’s enough to take on the Netherland team.”

Maharaj felt that they had sufficient positives to take from their win over Sri Lanka, and now they hoped to construct momentum of their second Group D match as they aimed to take one other step ahead of their try to elevate a maiden World Cup trophy.

“It was obviously really exciting getting the first one out the way. We put in a good technical performance in difficult conditions and we found a way through it, which was really important,” mentioned the skilled spinner.

“I think the way we stuck to processes during the game was outstanding and hopefully that continues into our next match against the Netherlands.”