Wiaan Mulder says “it sucks” to lose in a Proteas jumper after their historic ODI defeat to Afghanistan on Tuesday night.
Allrounder Mulder scored 52 of South Africa’s 106 runs all out, as they lost to Afghanistan for the first time ever – going down by six wickets at the Sharjah Stadium in the United Arab Emirates (UAE).
For Mulder losing is personal, as he says: “It’s terrible, I haven’t won in a green shirt for a while. “For me personally, it sucks. It’s just not nice at all to lose – especially when you represent your country.
“No matter how well you personally do, it hurts a lot and it doesn’t send a good message to the people who support us.
“But it is something we use as motivation for the next match and trying our best to win it.”
South Africa have another go at it in the second ODI at the same stadium in Sharjah in the today at 2pm.
This time around, they should have a better understanding of the playing conditions, with Mulder admitting that they found it tricky in the first clash.
The 26-year-old explains: “We found the conditions quite tricky overall…
“They [Afghanistan] just had a passage of play where they built momentum and it was extremely difficult [for us] to combat that at the stage.
“We’re going to try our best and put our best plans forward and try to rectify what went wrong [in the first match in order to win it].”
South Africa should have captain Temba Bavuma back in the team, after the 34-year-old missed the first match because of illness.
A Cricket South Africa spokesperson says of Bavuma’s availability for today’s match: “Temba’s recovery is progressing well. He was at optional training yesterday and did a few runs after the first game, so he’s on track to be ready for the second ODI.”
The third and final match will be played on Sunday at 2pm.