{"id":9625,"date":"2026-03-03T17:16:52","date_gmt":"2026-03-03T17:16:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/?p=9625"},"modified":"2026-03-03T17:16:52","modified_gmt":"2026-03-03T17:16:52","slug":"t20-world-cup-can-south-africa-be-trusted-as-tournament-favourites-before-new-zealand-semi-final","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/?p=9625","title":{"rendered":"T20 World Cup: Can South Africa be trusted as tournament favourites before New Zealand semi-final?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">The unanswered question about South Africa is what happens if the top order fails.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Jansen appears a place too high at number seven. Will they feel free to go hard in a knockout game?<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">The Proteas are also unique among the semi-finalists in that they do not have a wrist spinner in their XI, instead leaving their spin duties to left-arm finger spinner Keshav Maharaj and part-time off-spinner Markram.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">It has meant the Proteas have bowled the fewest amount of spin overs in the tournament \u2013 just 22.8%.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">In contrast, 53% of England&#8217;s overs have been from spinners.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;You can only pretty much cut your coat according to your cloth size and we don&#8217;t have wrist spinners or mystery spinners,&#8221; Conrad said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;Our bowling attack was fashioned in such a way that we&#8217;ve got wicket-taking options and that&#8217;s something that we&#8217;ve driven, especially with guys like KG [Rabada] and Marco [Jansen] &#8211; their impact in the match will be through taking wickets.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">South Africa&#8217;s gaps have been filled by Ngidi, who Conrad calls a &#8220;mystery seamer&#8221;, and seamer Corbin Bosch.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Ngidi is known for his range of slower balls. <\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">He has only conceded 6.2 runs per over in the middle phase of the innings while the unheralded Bosch has taken six wickets in that period.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;They&#8217;re all Test-match bowlers so bowling a Test-match length doesn&#8217;t come difficult to them so and I think that&#8217;s still a really tough length to hit consistently.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;Bosch keeps it really, really simple, he trains smartly, he trains hard, he doesn&#8217;t give himself too many options.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;We have Lungi that&#8217;s got a really deceptive slower ball and then Marco and KG are Marco and KG.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;It&#8217;s nice to be able to have that sort of variety.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">In 2024, India became the first team to win the T20 World Cup unbeaten. If South Africa are to win it, they will now have to do the same.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;The South Africa side look ready,&#8221; said former England captain Michael Vaughan.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;I do think that World Test Championship final victory at Lord&#8217;s has given them that boost.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;India played the pure game to the [50-over World Cup] final in 2023 and had one blip in the final [against Australia]. That is the one fear I have for South Africa.&#8221;<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><br \/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The unanswered question about South Africa is what happens if the top order fails. Jansen appears a place too high at number seven. Will they feel free to go hard in a knockout game? The Proteas are also unique among the semi-finalists in that they do not have a wrist spinner in their XI, instead<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":9626,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9625","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cricket"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9625","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9625"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9625\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/9626"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9625"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9625"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9625"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}