Rabada expects improved scoring rates as South Africa’s campaign shifts to West Indies
South Africa will face Nepal in St Vincent on 14 June, then feature in Group 2 of the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2024 alongside West Indies and two other sides.
In the group stages so far, South Africa have played all of their matches at the Nassau County International Cricket Stadium in New York. All of Group 2 matches in the Second Round will be played across the venues in the West Indies.
While the Proteas emerged victorious in all these low-scoring contests, South Africa speedster Kagiso Rabada believed that a shift to the more traditional cricketing tracks in the West Indies would mean a change in conditions, with increased scoring rates in sight.
South Africa make a winning start in New York against Sri Lanka | Match Highlights | T20WC 2024
South Africa bowled Sri Lanka out for their lowest total in men's T20Is and went on to chase the target down with six wickets to spare.
“I do expect that conditions are going to level up,” Rabada said ahead of his side’s game against Nepal. “Because you had the drop-in pitches in the USA, you never really know how they're going to play.”
South Africa’s scores in their first three games were 80/4, 106/6, and 113/6 respectively.
Rabada added that a lack of certainty around a safe total became the only certainty for South Africa in the group stage, but that might not be the case going forward.
“And we had an idea of how, a full idea of how they play. And now [in West Indies] you've actually got squares that have been there for years, here in these venues.
“And you'll probably see more competitive scores. And you look at the game between Australia and England, where 200 played 150.”
David Miller stars in South Africa win | POTM Highlights | NED v SA | T20WC 2024
While Rabada believed that teams could reach higher totals in the West Indies, he wasn’t jumping the gun with expectations of a good total from his batters, who haven’t thrived in the tournament thus far.
“If you do bat well in these conditions, you can still reach 200. But you want to get a game and find pitches where you have enough in it for the bowlers and enough in it for the batters, because that's essentially what a cricket game is.”
Adding that South Africa’s batting form can’t be judged by their tournament thus far, Rabada said that “common sense” would prevail, and South Africa would formulate their approach based on the wickets they play on.
South Africa make it three out of three in New York | Match Highlights | SA v BAN | T20WC 2024
South Africa booked their spot in the second round from Group D with a tense win over Bangladesh.
“Otherwise, you might as well just call it batting or you might as well call it bowling. But, the guys, you can't really judge their form on wickets that we've just played on. As much as it's not an excuse, but common sense would prevail.
“And you would say that you can't really blame the batters. But in saying that, no one's got any demons.
“Everyone's moving forward. We play the conditions as we see them. And on our day, we know the sky's a limit in terms of batting.”