T20 World Cup: Our whole team is contributing all the time, says SA’s Pretorius

Abu Dhabi, Nov 1 (SocialNews.XYZ) South Africa all-rounder Dwaine Pretorius believes that contributions by all members of the playing eleven have been key to South Africa's success in the ICC Men's T20 World Cup. He added that the team has not been dependent on one or two players to take them home. South Africa, currently second in the Group 1 standings with four points from three matches, face Bangladesh on Tuesday in Abu Dhabi.

"I think our whole team, batting, bowling, whatever, we're not relying on one or two superstars to get us over the line. Our whole team is contributing all the time. We can see it again in the last match. David (Miller) came to the floor, even Temba (Bavuma) got us taking us deep in difficult conditions. And if you go through even the warm-up matches, there's a lot of guys that have gone in, scored runs. I think overall our team is in a very good space at the moment but we're not taking any matches or any results for granted," said Pretorius in the pre-match press conference on Monday.

"We know that we need to keep preparing well. And then obviously bring all the intensity and passion when we get onto the field for the next game. Bangladesh is a good side, strong side, and very dangerous in these conditions, and we can't take them lightly," added Pretorius

Pretorius, who has been South Africa's leading wicket-taker with six wickets from three matches, has been effective at the death overs with two three-wicket hauls against West Indies and Sri Lanka.

Talking about how he has been influential with the ball in the death overs, Pretorius explained, "I think the dangers at the death are being predictable. So, I'm trying to vary my pace and my lengths quite a bit even though my line is the same, keeping the guys guessing. I'm trying to make sure I'm bowling to the batters' plan Cs and Ds instead of their plan A."

"It's not an ego battle out there; it's trying to be effective as much as possible If I can do a job for the team, again, and put us in a better situation, I'm willing to do that ugly job if you want to call it that -- something that doesn't always necessarily look the prettiest but it's very effective. And I've built my whole career on that. So I'm trying to do the best job that I can do for the team."

The 32-year-old revealed that he had been working on various variations of the slower ball for the tournament, which have come off very well. "I've worked a lot on different variations of slow balls. So, it's definitely something that I really have focused on. Obviously, in a T20 World Cup, I think if you only go to one option you might be in trouble. So really try to mix it up, make sure that even though at the moment guys might be thinking that I'm just going to go wide every time they face me."

"Even though the line might be predictable, you're still not sure which ball is going to come out. Having five options in terms of what I'm looking to do there is something that I've really worked hard on. And at the moment it's going well. So, yeah, we'll see."

Source: IANS