playerspeak

• The plan for South Africa coming into this tournament was to have a full fully-fit pace attack. You are kind of the last man standing in that and you will face a West Indies team that is a fully-fit pace attack. Is there a bit of jealousy that they are coming in looking so fit and firing when that could have been your plan?

I wouldn't say it's jealousy. I think that we have to deal with what we have. There's no point in complaining about it. Unfortunately, we've had quite a few problems in this tournament regarding injury.

So we've had to work our way around it and we're going to have to work our way around it for the next game. There's no point in complaining.

• Against India you seemed to discover some fire and real passion. Where did that come from? And do you feel that you can reproduce that same sort of form tomorrow?

Well, the World Cup is a big stage. Playing against India is a big stage. And we'd just lost two games on the bounce and there was a lot of emphasis on that game.

It's a game that I really hoped that we would win. There was a lot on that, on that game. It was going to give us some breathing space. So now we've just got a stiff challenge ahead of us, but we're ready to stand up, rise up to it.

• The result didn't go South Africa's way. There were signs there that the team was awakening. Did you get that feeling as well, that that could still be the turnaround game at this World Cup?

I hope so. We are very hopeful. I think we've played two of the best teams in the world. Bangladesh, we felt that we might have been a bit complacent, we talked about it, but we played England where actually we felt we really could have won that game.

India, we took it right to the death, but I think that's just in our DNA as South Africans. The way we play our cricket, we are always there. If you look at how we play our cricket, we never give up.

So, we need a few things to click and we are working our way around it. And so we are looking to turn it around tomorrow.

• We have been checking the weather report for Monday. Is that something you guys have paid any attention to? It is not looking too great. Does that play in the preparation?

Yes and there's been small talk, not big talk, about the weather. Again, it's an uncontrollable. Whatever God decides to do, He'll do. But we're going to control what we can control.

• West Indian side looks like the way their batters, they go and attack and attack. How do you approach a batting line-up like that in terms of your plans?

We have done our analysis already. We've put our plans in place. So today is about executing it or practicing it to make sure that we execute our plans.

The West Indies are a dangerous team. When they get going, they can really hurt the opposition, so we are aware of their threat. But we believe that we can beat them.

• What do you have to say about the World Cup experience for you personally? What has that been like for you?

 It's been very interesting. There's a lot been happening off the field. So it's a bit of a weird stage in terms of, for the Proteas and cricket in South Africa.

So it is a bit of a mix in that regard. We've been playing good cricket so, hopefully, in this tournament, we can do more of the same. There's been a lot happening off the field and we're just looking to clear that out of our heads. But it's been enjoyable.

                — Courtesy © ICC Business Corporation FZ LLC 2018