T20 World Cup tough nut to crack, but Proteas ready to win clutch moments, says Shukri Conrad

Proteas coach Shukri Conrad has called on his team “to make sure we win all the clutch moments” at the upcoming ICC Men’s T20 World Cup in India and Sri Lanka. 

Conrad has garnered great success with the Proteas Test side, building up a side that was on its knees when he took over to the summit of winning the World Test Championship (WTC) final at Lord’s last year. 

The 58-year-old has since been handed the leadership reins across all formats, succeeding former white-ball coach Rob Walter who led the Proteas to a first-ever T20 World Cup final two years ago in Barbados.

The transition to the short format hasn’t been as smooth with the T20 side winning just eight matches, while losing 13 under Conrad since his appointment. But two of those victories crucially came in the most recent series against the West Indies, which earned Conrad his first T20I series victory. 

“Yeah, really happy with the outcome,” Conrad said.

"I thought we played some exceptional cricket in the first two T20s. Obviously, the last one didn't work out in terms of the result, but I think we got a lot out of it in terms of putting batters under pressure in a chase like that

“West Indies, obviously, executed really well, but really good exercise. Wonderful to have everybody together for the first time. You could sense it when the guys got together, it was like business as usual.”

Whilst the Proteas exorcised some of their demons by winning the WTC final to end a 27-year barren run without a major ICC trophy in the cupboard to display at Cricket SA’s Illovo offices, it a white-ball silverware that the nation craves for. 

Previous disappointments, most notably the Barbados final where the Proteas were edged out by India in the last over after reducing the equation 30 runs off 30 balls, only adds fuel to the fire. 

The T20 World Cup is Conrad’s first taste of a major ICC tournament pressure cooker, but for the moment he is relishing the experience. 

“I'm like a kid in a candy shop now. This World Cup is my first one, yes. And the WTC, we know how well that ended,” he said. “But we start on a clean slate, you know. We need to play well.”

The veteran coach also understood that tournament play — the Proteas have four group matches — before the Super Eights is an entirely different challenge to a once-final like Lord’s was. The Proteas are in Group D alongside Canada, New Zealand, Afghanistan and the UAE.

“There's a lot to a World Cup rather than a once-off Test match or a one-off Test match. Obviously tricky games. Every game is a must-win game, essentially,” he said.

“Every side can beat any side on its day, and it's a fickle format. But we need to make sure that we win all the clutch moments. 

“We need to get out of the group stages and then start ramping it up as we go along. But, yeah, it's going to be a tough nut to crack. But we are up for it.”

The Proteas were due to play a warm-up game on Wednesday evening where middle-order batter David Miller will get a run for the first time since being passed fit after suffering an injury during the latter stages of the Betway SA20.