Cricket
Proteas not focused on possible WTC final─── MORGAN PIEK 13:30 Mon, 28 Oct 2024
The Proteas aren’t looking too far ahead on the eve of the 2nd and final Test against Bangladesh which will be played in Chattogram as of Tuesday.
South Africa have gone one-nil up in the series following their seven-wicket win in Dhaka last week, and they are strong contenders to reach the World Test Championship final. For this to happen, they need to win four of their next five Tests of which the majority will be at home to Sri Lanka and Pakistan.
The chance of South Africa reaching the final was boosted even more on the weekend after the Black Caps of New Zealand beat India by 113-runs in the 2nd Test in Pune to take an unassailable 2-0 lead in the series.
The prospect of reaching the WTC final has certainly motivated the Proteas even more, however, there is still a lot of cricket to be played between now and then.
The Proteas captain, Aiden Markram, said they are still a long way away from reaching the WTC final and it’s very important to focus on the now and the job at hand over the next five days.
“I don’t think it really adds pressure for us, it’s just an exciting opportunity that could be,” said Markram.
“That’s almost how we’re trying to view it – you probably still need to win a lot of your remaining games of cricket and we’ve got five left until we’ll know what our fate is. Five Test matches is a lot of cricket still to be played.
“That’s pretty much where we’re at now. We know if we can go session-by-session and game-per-game, we will hopefully give ourselves a good chance. We’re excited about what possibly could be moving forward, and yes, it certainly gets the boys fired up thinking about that idea.”
Play in Chattogram is scheduled to start on Tuesday morning at 6:00.