Champions Trophy – SA take Dubai stopover in their stride despite ‘a crazy 18 hours’

“We haven’t really travelled a lot in this competition,” he said. “It was obviously just a crazy 18 hours. They (New Zealand) played a game and they had to travel six hours after the game. We had, at least, that off time and we could stretch our legs and recover as well before we had to come back. I think our bodies will be in a better position than their bodies but it’s part of professional cricket at this moment. You just have to suck it up and go back and see if you can recover well and just get the job done at the end of the day.”

Part of the downtime for three of the South African players, including Marco Jansen, also included night golf in Dubai. Though the teams are allowed to go out of their hotels in Pakistan to play golf, South Africa have not made use of this provision and have remained in their hotels, as necessitated by the security situation in the country, which is not the case in Dubai, where they are allowed out. Several other squad members used the time in Dubai to visit a mall and Klaasen confirmed none of them, apart from some support staff, watched the match between India and New Zealand.

As it turns out, South Africa won’t need any intel into conditions in Dubai unless both they and India reach the final, but Klaasen pointed out obvious differences. “The conditions are quite different,” he said. “The conditions in Pakistan are quite nice to bat on, so the bowlers have a harder job to do. In Dubai, the wickets are slow, but you still have to play good cricket.

“Regardless of where you play, you still need to beat two good teams. If we beat New Zealand and India beat Australia, we still have to beat India there. Or if Australia beat them, we still have to beat a good Australian team to win this trophy. Regardless of where you play, you just have to play good cricket.”

After reaching a third successive knockout fixture in an ICC event, South Africa may argue that they have done exactly that – played good cricket – over the last two years and are hoping to pick up a major trophy after winning a World Cup semi-final for the first time at last year’s T20 tournament. The majority of that squad is also at this Champions Trophy and ready to go one step further.

“The nerves are a little bit less because we have a little bit more experience in the semi-final department now. We’re playing good cricket,” Klaasen said. “Since I’ve been around from 2018, we have played some incredible cricket. We just had some bad luck here and there and one or two games that didn’t go our way, but we’ve been playing good cricket. It’s the rewards that we’re seeing now. The boys are holding a little bit more composure in the bigger moments in the game. Hopefully, we can get into another final. We’ve got the experience now. The big boys need to step up on Wednesday.”

However far South Africa go, they have already eased pre-event concerns about poor form, which included being clean swept in an ODI home series for the first time, against Pakistan, and being on a six-match losing streak. White-ball coach Rob Walter put those results down to being without his first-choice players, who he believed would stand up when it counted, and he has been proven right. Klaasen asked South Africans to expect more of the same in future bilateral events, which will be used to blood players, even at the expense of results to ensure that the best can come together when it matters most.

“The public needs to understand that after the ICC event, you’re trying to explore a little bit as a group, see what’s out there and give guys opportunities so when they need to come in as back-up players, at least they’ve got international experience,” he said. “You can’t expect a young guy to just come in and perform and win every game.

“We were in a position over the last couple of years where we really tried to broaden our group a little bit. And with that will come some losses. And as long as your main team and the guys that are your first picks bring it every time we need to come play, then I don’t see the issue.”