South Africa have superstars of their own lying in wait, not least AB de Villiers, and Buttler believes England must rise to that standard.
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Another loss would leave it on the brink and reignite the debate about its struggles in the shorter formats.
Du Plesis further warned South Africa’s rivals to be wary of them, saying that his batting line-up were looking strong at the moment and could turn out to be unsafe for the oppositions. It’s been proven so many times. Du Plessis wants to capitalise on England’s pressurised position of knowing they have to win to keep their chances of progression alive in this tournament.
Eoin Morgan: (Chose to field because) it has been quite evident in the couple of games that we’ve played here that the dew becomes a factor later in the evening. “If we put England under pressure, we’re hoping they’ll fall back on that mentality of losing games and not being confident”, he said. “You give them a sniff, they can bounce back”.
Topley was set to make his World Twenty20 debut yesterday when England took on West Indies in their opening game of the tournament. South Africa is a tough side to beat.
It’s not going to be an easy task for Morgan’s side – which has a 3-1 record against the Proteas in past WT20 events though they do have the personnel to deliver the goods under pressure.
Adil Rashid and Moeen Ali are safe as well. – Eoin Morgan “I’ve always said I can bowl on anything”.
It’s with the bat that England will need to rethink its strategies a touch. “As a batsman, the more options you have the more you can be successful”, he said.
“It’s great for fans to see these guys perform at one time and we’ve got to have guys who stand up and compete with them. New Zealand looked like the minnows, they didn’t play their best cricket and they smashed us in the quarter-final”, noted du Plessis.
Du Plessis and company are hardly their ideal opponents either, having lost their last five limited-overs matches in South Africa last month. Dale Steyn will lead its bowlers.
For England, de Villiers will not be the lone hurdle. AB de Villiers requires a special mention as he is the key player to the Proteas. And past performances plays a massive role when you come to the ground.
“It was just nice to get out the hotel and have a look and then we got involved and had a hit”.
“Whether you’ve played in world tournaments or not, we’ve all had bad experiences in cricket”.
At press conferences in South Africa, this question gets asked as though it is some sort of code.
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Quinton de Kock, Faf du Plessis and AB de Villiers all capitalised with hundreds in the 400-plus run feast, and will be leaning on their recent success and Indian Premier League (IPL) familiarity of the 32000-seater cauldron in preparation for the match.
