New Zealand, South Africa inspired by All Blacks, Boks

AFP
Pune
New Zealand captain Tom Latham hopes to summon the fighting spirit of the All Blacks when his side face fellow Cricket World Cup semi-final contenders South Africa in Pune.
Today’s match comes just days after South Africa edged New Zealand by a point in a dramatic Rugby World Cup final in Paris, where the beaten All Blacks had to play most of the game a man down after skipper Sam Cane was sent off.
Latham’s men also suffered a narrow defeat last time out, going down by five runs against Australia after just failing to chase down a huge target of 389.
“That was obviously a fantastic game of rugby,” Latham told a pre-match press conference on Tuesday.
“But I guess you look at the All Blacks as a whole, they played some great rugby throughout the World Cup.”
He added: “I think you look at the final and I guess the Kiwi way is we look to scrap the whole way, obviously faced with a little bit of adversity in terms of being down to 14 men.
“I guess it’s something we talk about in our team as well - we scrap right to the end regardless of the situation.
“I think we showed that the other night as well, taking the game as deep as we can and if we can do that, then hopefully that gives ourselves a good chance towards the back end of the game.”
As for the match in front of his side, Latham said New Zealand would face a “really hot” South Africa, with their lone defeat so far this World Cup a shock loss to the Netherlands.
The Proteas’ top order has repeatedly overwhelmed their opponents, with South Africa posting 399 in their 229-run rout of reigning champions England.
“South Africa, they’re running really hot at the moment,” said Latham. “And they’ve got a lot of power throughout the whole line-up.” But he added: “We certainly know we’ve got a world-class bowling attack as well...It’s going to be a great contest tomorrow.”
South Africa, however, looked far less assured when subjected to the pressure of chasing against Pakistan last time out, suffering several stumbles before scraping a one-wicket in pursuit of 271.
“Sometimes you could look at the opposition and what they want to do, but for us, it’s always been about focusing on us and what’s best for us as a team,” said Latham, whose side have also lost to unbeaten World Cup hosts India.
New Zealand still have injury doubts over regular captain and star batsman Kane Williamson (thumb), fast bowler Lockie Ferguson (Achilles) and all-rounder Mark Chapman (calf).
“We’ll get through a bit of work today and then we’ll see how they pull up from a selection point of view,” said Latham. “Lockie went off in the last game with a bit of an Achilles’ niggle, so fingers crossed he’ll be fine for tomorrow.”
Van der Dussen says South Africa have no World Cup
‘choking’ hangoverRassie van der Dussen has insisted South Africa are carrying no Cricket World Cup baggage even if their long-suffering fans may sometimes feel they are “watching a movie they’ve seen before”.
South Africa, despite teams featuring the likes of Allan Donald, Jonty Rhodes, Herschelle Gibbs, Lance Klusener and AB de Villiers, have yet to win the World Cup since their post-apartheid entry into the event in 1992.
They have often been the authors of their own downfall, going out after a tied semi-final against Australia in 1999 when they had the game all but won, misreading rain-affected run-rate rules in 2003 and losing another last-four thriller against New Zealand in 2015.
The manner of South Africa’s exits has led to accusations of “choking” and their critics were ready with fresh suggestions of mental frailty following a shock loss to the Netherlands earlier in this edition.
But that reverse remains South Africa’s lone defeat so far in six World Cup games in India, with the Proteas just holding their nerve to defeat Pakistan by one wicket last time out.
They next face New Zealand, who’ve won five straight World Cup matches against the Proteas since 1999, in Pune today.
Van der Dussen, asked during a pre-match press conference in Pune on Tuesday if South Africa were indeed carrying any “baggage”, replied: “No, I suppose it’s about just acknowledging and accepting it.
“After that Dutch game, we took a lot of flak from back home and certainly in the media as well. There’s no use in delving too much into it. You’ve just got to accept it and move on.”
The 34-year-old batsman added: “You realise that there’s people at home and fans that have been really scarred by the previous performances of South Africa at World Cups.
“You can’t really criticise them for feeling that way, for the criticism to come from, I suppose, a place of hurt where they’ve seen that movie before.”
Even so, he insisted: “But personally, and I think it goes for probably most of the people in our squad and management team, that we haven’t lived that. So, it’s not really applicable to us.”
Coming up to date, he said the Pakistan match was a positive as “we didn’t play our best cricket at all, especially from a batting sense, and we still managed to get a win”.
Today’s match takes place just days after South Africa’s Springboks defeated their arch-rivals, New Zealand’s All Blacks 12-11 to win a tense Rugby World Cup final in Paris.
Victory gave the Springboks, who won all three of their knockout matches by just a one-point margin, a fourth World Cup title.
“We take massive inspiration from them,” said Van der Dussen.
“We know a lot of those players personally as well...And I think the real realisation for us is that we’re no different.
“We haven’t won World Cups, but if we do manage to get there at some time, it will be really an honour for us to be mentioned in the same sentence as those guys.”