The Proteas are still sweating on the availability of captain Temba Bavuma ahead of Tuesday’s 10.30am Cricket World Cup clash against Bangladesh.
Bavuma missed South Africa’ stunning 229-run win over England at the weekend because of illness and was replaced in the starting lineup by opener Reeza Hendricks, who went on to score 85 runs off 75 balls at the top of the order.
Asked whether their captain will be fit to play on Tuesday, stand-in leader Aiden Markram says: “Temba, he’s definitely improving. There hasn’t been a final call just yet on him. I think they’re going to make the call [today]. But he is at least in better spirits.”
Eagerly awaiting our next opponents @BCBtigers in the #CWC23 🇿![CDATA[]]>🇦![CDATA[]]>🇧![CDATA[]]>🇩#WozaNawe #BePartOfIt pic.twitter.com/CycXvy08N6
— Proteas Men (@ProteasMenCSA) October 23, 2023
With Bavuma a doubt, South Africa will have to keep their head in the game against a Tigers team that beat them twice in World Cups before.
The two teams clashed four times at World Cups to date, with SA winning in 2003 and 2011 and Bangladesh causing upsets in both 2007 and 2019.
After losing to Netherlands in their only defeat in four outings in India to date, Markram says of the Wankhede Stadium tussle: “Whenever you play Bangladesh, it’s obviously a massive game for us. We haven’t done particularly well against them in the past, so that’s extra motivation for us to come out and replicate what was a good performance against England, but more from an intensity level and a standards level.
“That’s something that we’re going to try to focus on and trust that if we take care of those sorts of things, hopefully it’s enough for us on the day.