PROTEAS READY TO ROL AT T20 WORLD CUP

PROTEAS coach Shukri Conrad has called on his manne “to make sure we win all the clutch moments” at the upcoming T20 World Cup in India and Sri Lanka.

Conrad has had great success with the Proteas Test span, building up a team that was on its knees when he took over to the summit of winning the World Test Championship final at Lord’s last year.

The 58-year-old has since been handed the leadership reins across all formats, succeeding former white-ball coach Rob Walter who led the Proteas to a first-ever T20 World Cup final two years ago in Barbados.

The transition to the short format hasn’t been as smooth with the T20 side winning just eight matches, while losing 13 under Conrad since his appointment.

But two of those victories crucially came in the most recent series against the West Indies, which earned Conrad his first T20 series victory.

The coach wysed: “Yeah, really happy with the outcome [against the Windies]. I thought we played some exceptional cricket in the first two T20s.

“Obviously, the last one didn’t work out in terms of the result, but I think we got a lot out of it in terms of putting batters under pressure in a chase like that.”

The veteran coach also understood that tournament play before the Super Eights is an entirely different challenge to a once-off final like Lord’s was.

He added: “Every side can beat any side on its day, and it’s a fickle format. But we need to make sure that we win all the clutch moments. We need to get out of the group stages and then start ramping it up as we go along. But, yeah, it’s going to be a tough nut to crack. But we are up for it.”