South African batter Rassie van der Dussen is ready for the challenge of facing India in their next outing of the 2023 World Cup at the Eden Gardens on Sunday, November 5. South Africa beat New Zealand to record a 190-run victory are ready to play against India who are the only unbeaten side in the competition as well.
Addressing reporters after the New Zealand clash, Van der Dussen said: “The challenge is to under pressure, to stay with that, and that’s what we’ll look to do. But we’ve played them here before and we’ve beaten them here before. So, in a sense, it’s, even though it’s a World Cup, it’s not really too much different. We won’t be looking at that too much. Yeah, if that answers your question.”
READ MORE: “Can be the future captain of India” – Kiran More on Ruturaj Gaikwad
He again shared, “So obviously, playing India in India is a massive event. They’ve been playing really well. A lot of experience in their team. They’ve got all bases covered, brilliant bowling attack and obviously the batting as well. But again, like I said, we’ll go into that game knowing that if we do the things well that we want to do, we’ll be in a really strong position.”
However, the Proteas have won four of the last six ODI meetings against Team India, including a 3-0 sweep in 2022 as well. Meanwhile, India have won the last two ODI World Cup games between the sides and emerged victorious as well.
READ MORE: Virat Kohli shares the importance of maintaining diet
“I think what we’ve done really well in this campaign is we’re really just focusing on what we want to do and how we want to play it. In our match review meetings, we keep looking at the numbers with the coaches and so far in this tournament, by most metrics, we’re stacking up pretty well,” Rassie van der Dussen concluded. “So, at the end of the day, it’s almost irrelevant who’s in front of you. We know if we play the way we want to play and execute how we want to and take the correct options, especially under pressure, then the result is a byproduct of that.”
