Perth: Tearaway South Africa pacer Anrich Nortje has urged his fellow fast bowlers to keep their calm in situations where the adrenaline would be high while bowling on a spicy Perth pitch in their match against India on Sunday in the Men’s T20 World Cup.
Sunday will see Perth Stadium hosting an important Group 2 clash between table-toppers India and second-placed South Africa where previous matches have been low-scoring and pitches providing pace and bounce which makes many remember the famous WACA Stadium.
“Hopefully somewhere in the future we can have two bouncers in an over. That would be unbelievable. But on wickets like this, you have one bounce in an over, so you have to try and just sort of time it properly and not to get carried away.”
“Sometimes it can look nice, but it’s not effective. So try to be as effective as possible. Like you say, try to keep the emotions intact. Just try and be calm in situations where I think adrenaline is flowing, and I think most of the time you should come out on top just as a bowler and from an execution point of view,” said Nortje in the pre-match press conference.
Weather has majorly called the shots in the tournament this week, with South Africa seeing their first Super 12 match against Zimbabwe washed out due to rain at Hobart, which has made all their remaining matches all more crucial in order to reach the semi-finals.
Though dark clouds have been hovering over Perth with some light rain coming in, the weather is expected to be fine for Sunday’s double-header. “There’s a possibility of other games getting rained out. There’s possibilities of maybe this and that happening, and then we could go through. Or we can just try and win all four or all of our games, and it makes it simple.”
“You sort of know day by day what you have to do. It’s to try and get the win. To make it easier for ourselves and not to think too far ahead, taking it day by day by trying to get the victories on every game day, that’s the only way forward.”
“We can’t bank on another game to rain out maybe in a week’s time to try and get through or to get closer. When we’ve got the opportunity to go for a big win, get the net, run it up, try and do that. And when we get the opportunity to win, try and do that as soon as possible, obviously,” explained Nortje.
Nortje, who holds the record for the second-fastest delivery of the tournament at 153kph, signed off by saying his focus has always been on execution instead of looking at the speed gun.
“It’s a nice feeling, but it’s not something I focus on. I try to execute as much as possible. But, yes, something you work your whole life towards to bowl fast, so to be able to bowl fast and be one of the fastest, it’s a nice feeling, but just have to focus on the job ahead and what we have to do rather than looking at the speeds.”
(IANS)
