Proteas captain Aiden Markram.
Image: AFP
Proteas captain Aiden Markram believes his team’s comprehensive victory over New Zealand in the group stages has no bearing on Wednesday’s ICC T20 World Cup semi-final at Eden Gardens in Kolkata.
Markram’s men thrashed the Black Caps by seven wickets in Ahmedabad in their final Group 3 encounter before the Super Eights stage.
The Proteas have since gone on an unbeaten run stretching seven matches heading into the semis, while the Kiwis have endured a trickier road to the semis, having their Super Eight match against Pakistan rained out and losing to New Zealand before beating Sri Lanka to progress to the knockout stages.
Markram, though, believes the semi-final is a “fresh start” for everyone.
“We had a good run out against them in the group stages but yeah, both teams have played a lot of cricket since then,” he said.
“Quality team New Zealand, they've proved that over many years. It's a completely fresh start tomorrow (Wednesday) and it being the semi-final which is exciting as well, so I don't think it's as straightforward as just being able to repeat that again. I wish cricket was that easy.
“A lot of variables in this game but the boys are very excited for the opportunity to play in a semi-final against a good team like New Zealand and yeah, we'll try to bring our best game to the front again.”
Unlike New Zealand who have travelled all around India and to Sri Lanka during this T20 World Cup, the Proteas have only played in Ahmedabad and Delhi thus far.
The conditions in Kolkata would therefore be foreign to the Proteas, which could influence Markram’s decision should he win the toss.
“We'll see tomorrow. A lot of it depends on dew and stuff like that,” he said. “We'll hopefully get a feel of it tonight at training.
“I'm not sure exactly what conditions it'd be like, obviously we kept a close eye on the India vs West Indies game that was here to get a bit of an indication.
“Briefly, quickly now walked out to the wicket, it looks pretty good again so I think it's the darker soil so yeah, we'll just have to not wing it but come up with ways out in the middle after having seen a couple of balls, seen how it's playing and back those plans from there.”
The match starts at 3:30pm SA time.