Rassie van der Dussen says the Proteas are not thinking about 2023 World Cup qualification.
The Proteas batsman was speaking after their 27-run win against England in Bloemfontein on Friday, in which he scored 111.
To ensure that they qualify directly for the ODI World Cup in India in October and November, the Proteas must win their two remaining matches in this series against England and their two remaining matches in the series against the Netherlands (that was halted by Covid in November 2021).
If they do not finish in the top eight on the Super League log, the Proteas will have to play in a qualifying tournament in Zimbabwe in June and July where the remaining two World Cup places will be decided.
However, Van der Dussen says the team isn’t too concerned about how they get to India and are focused on the job at hand.
“We’re not really thinking about qualification. Whatever happens, we’ll deal with it. If we need to go qualify, we’ll do it. If we end up winning enough games for automatic qualification, then that’s great. We’re taking it game by game.”
HIGHLIGHTS: Proteas vs England (1st ODI)
The 33-year-old hailed the Proteas’ performance on Friday, in which they posted 298-7 in their 50 overs, before fighting back to bowl England out for 271 after the tourists had been cruising to victory at 146-0.
“The resolve we showed, especially with all the excitement of the SA20, the guys came out and re-focused. It was unbelievable.”
“It definitely helped that Temba [Bavuma] won the toss and he was very clear on what he wanted to do. He wanted us to bat first, put a score on the board and place England under pressure. We identified pretty quickly what was going to be a good score.
“When our prospects looked bleak against the English openers, we realised that our only chance was taking wickets, and we executed that strategy. It was a really good performance.”
