The Proteas have regained their confidence at the 2023 ICC Cricket World Cup being played in India.

On Saturday the national men’s team returned to winning ways with an outstanding 229-run annihilation of England at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai.

The defeat has put the title defence of the reigning champions, England in serious jeopardy as it has reached a point where they may not qualify for the knockout games.

That said, there is still a lot of cricket to be played at the World Cup.

There were questions about the English captain, Jos Buttler’s decision to bowl first, while the extreme heat and humidity made it very tough for both teams.

Jos Buttler - Cricinfo

Buttler said ultimately, Heinrich Klaasen and Marco Jansen took the game away from them.

“I think you always reflect after games and sort of question your decisions,” said Buttler.

“Certainly, with hindsight, the sort of physicality of that innings, potentially batting first would have been a better decision, but I'm not going to sort of sit here and question that and in that sense and sort of say, you should have done this or you should have done that. It's a decision I took at the time. I thought it was the right one and I still believe if we were chasing 340, 350, we would have done really well in those conditions.

“A few things didn't go right. Obviously, Reece, picking up a knock and unsure if he was going to come back. So, I thought Joe Root did a fantastic job there filling in. And yeah, physically it was tough. You know, everyone's efforts were, you can't fold anyone's efforts, but yeah, Klassen and Jansen put together a fantastic partnership there.”

While South Africa is in a fantastic position to finish in the top four, it’s not going to get any easier in the next two weeks.

South Africa will face the Tigers of Bangladesh in Mumbai tomorrow, but there are still games against Pakistan, New Zealand and India to come.

The shock defeat to the Netherlands earlier in the week did put the Proteas on the backfoot, but their response against England was simply outstanding and has certainly boosted their confidence.

Heinrich Klaasen - Cricinfo

Klaasen who scored a brilliant 109 against the Three Lions said as a collective they are in a good space.

“It ranks up to one of my better hundreds purely on the conditions that was out there - I really had to dig deep mentally,” said Klaasen.

“Physically I was not in a good space but mentally I had to dig very deep there.

“Our World Cup performances, everyone obviously has got their tag over us but we've played some good cricket in the World Cup. We've been unlucky and obviously we didn't execute on certain games. But if you go look at our games that we've played, we've played some very, very good cricket in World Cup. So, it's not a surprise that we're playing good cricket.

“We've been playing, especially this group has been playing good cricket for the last three years now. We've been maturing nicely over the last three years. And it's our time to really try to make a big statement for the world that South Africans are very good under pressure.

“We've done it before, and it's unfortunate that there wasn't as much luck, because you need some luck as well.”

Tuesday’s game between the Proteas and Bangladesh in Mumbai gets underway at 10:30.

Virat Kohli - Cricinfo

Meanwhile, India beat New Zealand by four-wickets in Dharamsala to remain the only unbeaten team at the World Cup.

Daryl Mitchell scored 130 to lead the Black Caps to 273 in their innings, while Mohammed Shami took 5/54 as the pick of the Indian bowlers.

In reply, Virat Kohli struck 95 to lead the hosts to the win with just 12 balls to spare.

In Monday's game, the top-ranked Pakistan will go head-to-head against Afghanistan in Chennai. This game is scheduled to start at 10:30.

Morgan Piek OFM Sport