On Thursday, South Africa suffered a 33-run defeat to Pakistan according to the Duckworth-Lewis method at the Sydney Cricket Ground, and this puts pressure on them to qualify for the semi-finals, albeit they are still in quite a strong position to do so.

The defeat means that the Proteas will have to beat the Dutch on Sunday if they are to advance to the semi-finals.

South Africa will want to sharpen up on their fielding, which has been good in the tournament but wasn’t up to their high standards against Pakistan.

Bavuma, who scored 36 runs in South Africa’s difficult run chase, said the defeat could be a blessing in disguise.

"I think as a team, if you are going to lose, now is probably the best time. But looking to our next game, that’s now a must-win for us looking at the table, and then, of course, the playoffs are a must-win.

"I guess we had a bit of a lifeline in terms of the way we have played up until this point, but I think from now on it's about us playing our best cricket. We didn’t play our best cricket, and hopefully we will in the next few games.

"It's probably a bit of a wake-up call for us. Looking at the game and how it went about, I thought the first 10 overs were superb, we were able to get them under pressure, but then the wheels probably fell off a bit.

"I am not going to sit here and look for excuses. Up until this game, it has been very good. We have fielded at night, during the day, and in wet conditions. I think individually, the guys were not where they needed to be mentally. The mistakes that were made were not the type of mistakes that you want to be making at this level, especially at this stage of the tournament. Maybe the intensity lowered a bit from the guys, and that's definitely not the standard of fielding we pride ourselves on."

Sunday’s match at the Adelaide Oval is scheduled to get under way at 2 am.

Morgan Piek/OFM Sport