South Africa under-19s captain George van Heerden says his side won’t heap further pressure on themselves and will focus on showcasing their skills ahead of the crucial ICC Under-19 Men’s Cricket World Cup match against Ireland on Friday in Tarouba.
The Group B contest will be a winner-takes-all affair for a spot in the tournament's Super League quarterfinal stage, with second-placed South Africa leading Ireland by a net run rate of 0.590 as both teams sit on two points with one victory apiece.
The exciting match-up gets under way from 3pm CAT (SA, GMT+2) at the Brian Lara Academy, a multi-purpose ground in Trinidad and Tobago.
The action will be broadcast live on SuperSport Variety 1 and on SuperSport’s YouTube channel.
“Our next game against Ireland is basically a straight shootout and whoever wins that game will qualify for the Super 8 phase of the tournament,” captain Van Heerden began.
“As a team, I don’t think we want to view it that way, instead, we want to view it as another opportunity to just showcase our skills and enjoy ourselves on the park because ultimately that is when we are going to be able to hopefully put our best together.
“There is so much pressure in a World Cup already on all of the players, so if you are viewing it as a do-or-die, you’ll be adding extra pressure onto yourself, and you are then ultimately not able to showcase everything you’ve got.
“For us, we are just looking at it as another opportunity to go out there and try and play our brand of cricket and express ourselves, enjoy it and take it from there, and hopefully it goes well for us,” he added.
The SA U19s produced an excellent performance against fellow African nation, Uganda, notching up a convincing 121-run victory to open their account for the tournament following a defeat to India in the opening game.
Van Heerden believes the result was an all-important one for the belief of the side, crediting the team’s three disciplines; batting, bowling, and fielding, in helping them seal the result.
“The whole squad was just very excited to get one on the board in a very big competition like this, in a World Cup, it’s always important to get those first points on the board so you can build on the momentum you’ve gained from that match,” van Heerden commented.
“It’s done awesome things for our squad, the belief in the team, we’ve always had it, but now we’ve proved to ourselves that we can live at this level, and we are very excited for what’s to come.
“Our batters set a very solid base for us to launch from and our bowlers hit their straps from the word go. Through tight bowling, they were able to put pressure on the Ugandan batters, which drew false strokes from their side and ultimately, led to the wickets that we did get.
“In the field, there weren’t too many things to fault, we really backed up our bowlers nicely and we are happy with the way we went with our play,” he continued.
Against Uganda, top-order batter and leg-spinner, Dewald Brevis produced another stellar display for the green and gold as he followed up his maiden Youth One-Day International (ODI) fifty against India with a first hundred at this level, recording a pivotal 104 off 110 balls (11 fours, 1 six).
With the ball, the 18-year-old returned figures of 2-18 in 5.4 overs to help wrap up the Ugandan innings for 110 all out after anchoring his side to 231 for nine with the bat earlier in the day.
“Dewald Brevis is obviously a very important member of our squad, “the skipper noted.
“He offers us so much with the bat. Batting at number three for us, he is very attacking, aggressive, and almost sets the tone for how we want to play and the brand of cricket we want to play.
“He has been vital for us and provided us with the leg-spinning option that gives us a lot of variety in our attack and is a weapon we can use when we need him, especially bowling from the 30th over onwards, hopefully to the tail if our squad is bowling nicely.
“He gives us variety in the attack with his bowling and batting, and is also a brilliant fielder, so all-round an absolutely awesome player to have in the team and we are so grateful to have an all-rounder like him in our squad.
With Brevis grabbing all the headlines, Van Heerden was also keen to emphasise the important roles being played by his other teammates.
“Liam Alder has done brilliantly in the first two games. Especially against Uganda, he tied things up nicely from the one end and the Ugandan batters found it very difficult to score off him. I think his figures were 2-13 in 10 overs, which is absolutely brilliant in white ball cricket nowadays.
“Matt Boast also bowled exceptionally in both games by charging in and hitting the deck hard and really setting the tone for us on the bowling side of things,” he added.
“I also thought Mickey Copeland bowled well in the first game, tied things up with Liam against India and all the boys. Kaden Solomon has been brilliant behind the stumps and all the other boys have just backed each other up nicely and hopefully the performances will start to come for everybody else as well,”