World Cup 2023: Rassie van der Dussen fires warning shots at India ahead of Sunday match

South Africa are a confident team having won six out of seven World Cup 2023 and sitting at the top of the points table. Their next assignment will probably be the toughest of all as they get ready to face the hosts and in-form India, but batter Rassie van der Dussen is confident that the Proteas could beat the Men in Blue if they stick to their strengths.

South Africa will take unbeaten India in Kolkata on Sunday.

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“Obviously, playing India in India is a massive event. They’ve been playing really well. A lot of experience in their team. They’ve got all bases covered, brilliant bowling attack and obviously the batting as well,” said Van der Dussen on Wednesday.

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“But again, we’ll go into that game knowing that if we do the things well that we want to do, we’ll be in a really strong position. The challenge is to under pressure, to stay with that, and that’s what we’ll look to do. But we’ve played them here before and we’ve beaten them here before. So, in a sense, it’s, even though it’s a World Cup, it’s not really too much different. We won’t be looking at that too much.”

South Africa are yet to land a major trophy despite being close on multiple occasions but they have looked in peak form this ODI World Cup, having scored three of the six highest scores in this edition.

“What we’ve done really well in this campaign is we’re really just focusing on what we want to do and how we want to play it,” said van der Dussen, who smashed 133 off 118 balls against New Zealand for his second ton this World Cup.

“In our match review meetings, we keep looking at the numbers with the coaches and so far in this tournament, by most metrics, we’re stacking up pretty well. So, at the end of the day, it’s almost irrelevant who’s in front of you. We know if we play the way we want to play and execute how we want to and take the correct options, especially under pressure, then the result is a byproduct of that.”

Their formidable batting unit has been the strength for South Africa, who had the fewest dot balls and yet the most boundaries by any team in this showpiece.

“I think that’s a result of what we want to do when we’re out in the middle. We talk about what’s — assessing condition and what’s the correct option and always having the correct intent. And that sort of differs throughout the innings, your options, and your intent. But we know if we can tick those boxes, naturally you put yourself in a better position to score and to be in positions to manoeuvre the ball where you want to.” he added.

“We don’t really look to tick those boxes per se, but I think they tell a story in hindsight of where we are and how we want to go about it I suppose.”

With PTI inputs