South African pacer Kagiso Rabada expects to see “competitive scores” in the Super Eight stage of the T20 World Cup as the West Indian pitches are more consistent in nature compared to the drop-in decks being used in the US leg of the tournament.
The 22-yard strip in New York kicked up a storm because of the excess and varied bounce it offered to the bowlers, which made run-making a hazardous job. Now, the Super Eight matches will be played exclusively at Caribbean venues.
“I do expect that conditions are going to level up because you had the drop-in pitches in the USA. You never really know how they’re going to play,” said Rabada on the eve of South Africa’s final Group D match against Nepal here.
“Now, you’ve actually got squares that have been there for years, here in these venues. And you’ll probably see more competitive scores,” he added.
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Rabada said balanced playing surfaces are important to ensure an equal contest between bat and ball.
“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.
“That’s essentially what a cricket game is. Otherwise, you might as well just call it batting or you might as well call it bowling,” he explained.
The 29-year-old cited the example of the match between Australia and England at Barbados on June 8 to underline his point.
“You look at the game between Australia and England, where 200 played 150. So, if you bat well in these conditions, you can still reach 200,” he said.
Rabada also hoped that the much-vaunted South African batting unit consisting of range-hitters like Heinrich Klaasen and Tristan Stubbs would regain its mojo in the Super Eight after their struggles in the group phase.
“You can’t really judge their form on wickets that we’ve just played on. As much as it’s not an excuse, common sense would prevail. 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,” he elaborated.
The Lamichhane threat
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Nepal Leg-spinner Sandeep Lamichhane is set to play against the Proteas after landing in the St Vincent after being denied a US visa due to the rape case against him from which he was recently found acquitted. The ICC has approved him as a late addition to the Nepal World Cup squad.
Rabada said it will be a challenge for his batters to negate a “mystery spinner” like Lamichhane.
“Yeah, he’s a mystery spinner, so any mystery spinner is going to be tough to play. But I know the guys are really looking forward to facing that challenge,” he added.
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