ICC T20 WORLD CUP 2022

October 25, 2022

Mark Boucher

Bellerive Oval

South Africa

Post Match Media Conference

South Africa 51/0, Zimbabwe 79/5

THE MODERATOR: We've got South Africa's coach, Mark Boucher, at the top table.

Q. Dave Houghton just said he didn't think a ball should have been bowled today. I just wondered what you thought of conditions today.

MARK BOUCHER: Well, I thought it was tough conditions. We all had to play a World Cup, and obviously, you know, we wanted to play.

It seemed like both captains wanted to play at the start. Having a look at the game before the fielders was fairly wet as well. There had been a little bit of rain around.

But, yeah, players don't make those decisions. The officials are there to make those decisions, and that's what happened.

Q. Would you have been happy if South Africa's bowlers had been bowling in those conditions towards the end?

MARK BOUCHER: I think we did. I think we bowled a ball that was quite wet as well.

So, yeah. Look, we were in a very good position, so we walk away from this game, and you're going to be thinking we were outdone by -- whether the game should have been taken place or not.

If Zimbabwe were in our position, they would have wanted to carry on playing. We're not there to make the calls. That's what officials do, and officials made the call. We we've got to live with their decisions.

Q. South Africa and rain sometimes have had complicated situations at World Cups. Does it require mental strength to put this out of your mind and realize you have four games to go to make a difference?

MARK BOUCHER: The positive is it's not a do-or-die game for us. We are still in control of what happens in this World Cup.

So, yes, we haven't had a good history with rain, but I would rather have it happen in the first game now where we are still in control of what we can actually do.

It is a tough group, and there's probably one game that is really going to be a game that we're going to have to win, but we'll see. It's still very early in the tournament.

I'm just happy the way our intensity was very good today, so that's a positive I can take out of it. And, also, Quinny played some special cricket shots, which I think sends a bit of a message as well.

Q. T20 is a compressed enough format. How do you prepare players and get the though in the head that they're going to have to go now and play 9-overs and 7-overs? How do you do that as a coach?

MARK BOUCHER: Yeah, it's not ideal. When you arrive at a day, you sort of prepare for 20-overs in the field and 20-overs of the bats. It is, it's fast-moving. You lose overs very quickly.

I think we selected a team that we knew that there was some rain around as well, and we tried to give our guys the best opportunity if it was a shortened game. We've known that there's been a lot of rain around for the last of the week now.

I think from our side and from the team's perspective what is disappointing is that before the game even started you were, like, are we going to get a game today? We get sort of four-fifths of the way, and then we have to go off the field. So it's almost like, did we want to play today? We get so close, but then it gets taken away from you. So that is probably the most frustrating part just at the moment.

It is what it is. I would rather it happen now, as I say, than further down the line.

Q. What do you say to people who are amazed that Reeza Hendricks didn't play, for instance? He has done so well. How do you leave him out?

MARK BOUCHER: It's tough. Temba is a guy who is coming in his place. Temba was injured. He did own that spot. He is the captain as well.

He hasn't been in great form, but he got sick in India where we wanted him to have a bit of game time. I think these conditions suit his game a lot better as well. Hopefully he can get some good time.

I mean, today he was out in the middle there for quite some time, but didn't face too many balls. He has been batting really well in the nets, if I can say that. So hopefully he finds some good form. As I said, I think these conditions suit him nicely.

It's tough. Not only on him. There's other players in the 15 that are sitting on the side of the field now. I think that's the strength of our unit at the moment. We've got some good depth, and we have some good options.

We decided to go with the extra seamer today, which is quite harsh on Shamsi, but I think it was the right decision, especially with the rain around.

When you are picking up two wickets in the first 2-overs, the way (indiscernible) all sort of -- and Parnell weren't in the selection as well. We've got some good options going forward. If guys maybe get injured or lose a bit of form, we have got guys to back them up.

Q. With Wick when he came out and had success with the strokes that he was playing and they were all coming off pretty much, is it a case of, look, obviously, the rain was down. You knew it. That's why you needed to be aggressive, but there wasn't a lot more you could do to get the runs any quicker?

MARK BOUCHER: There's not much you can do. Quinny is one of the most dangerous batters in the world when he plays like that, so it's nice from a coaching perspective to see him going out there and playing with that freedom. That is good.

I think we maximize what we could, to be fairly honest. I don't know how many overs we bowled, and we got 15, I think in 3-overs. That's pretty much going.

So there's no sort of regrets in our dressing room. We did what we could today. Unfortunately, we just didn't get a quality maybe another 10 balls to finish the job off.

Q. Hi, Mark. Was there any thought in perhaps changing Quinny's batting (indiscernible) for the match?

MARK BOUCHER: Sorry? Up front? You're talking about just getting another hit in?

Q. Yeah --

MARK BOUCHER: There might have been a thought there, but I think, you know, it was a decision where you can't play for rain. We thought that we could have 9-overs, and I felt that it was actually a good opportunity for Tems really just to go and express himself and lead from the front.

Yeah, I mean, as I said, Quinny faced most of the liberties in any case. I think Temba faced two balls. So Quinny maximized, which is good to see.

It's a tough one. We want to keep giving Temba an opportunity to get some sort of rhythm in his batting. And if the thought was there, it was almost like, maybe, maybe let's just go with what we've got at the moment.

Q. Of course, this match got washed out. Really disappointing for you, no doubt. Your next game against Bangladesh. What's your thought about them? What's your thought on that game? Bangladesh started with the win. So what's the thought about the next game?

MARK BOUCHER: I think every game that you play, you have to try and win. We watched a bit of the Bangladesh game today. They got off to a good start. They stumbled a bit in the middle. I think their batting was really good as well.

Yeah, I mean, we've got to win all our games now, and World Cups are cut-throat, and we're going to a different venue now. Hopefully the rain stays away, and we can get some good cricket in and showcase our skills.

T20 cricket on a day, you know, you can have one or two guys come off and that can be a win for you. We believe that we've got some good quality bowlers and some good quality batters to be able to give us quite a few different chances of coming off. I'm sure Bangladesh probably feel the same thing as well.

For now it's just packing up, getting over to the next venue, and working out what sort of strategy and what team you're going to put up to try and get a win over Bangladesh.

Q. Tough luck for the way it finished there. We are moving on to Sydney next to face Bangladesh. What are you expecting just in terms of conditions? And, also, with the positive intent that Quinny showed up top there, is that what you would be expecting from that top order for the rest of the competition? Obviously, situations will change game-by-game.

MARK BOUCHER: Yeah, so we watched as coaches. We watched the game last night. Thriller of a game between India and Pakistan. We've got a good idea of what the venue is going to be like. I mean, a lot of our guys have played at Sydney before as well.

So we sort of know what conditions we're going to get there. We know the boundary sizes as well. We've prepared for that accordingly.

Quinny, in a competition like this sometimes guys can tend to tense up a bit. It's very good to Quinny sees a moment where he actually went out and just played the sort of free-flowing game that we know that Quinton de Kock, if he comes off, is very dangerous with.

Happy for him to get a start like that. Hopefully he can continue with that confidence and that freedom because that's when I think we get the best out of him.

Good start for us. Unfortunately, not the result we wanted this evening, but there's a lot of good things that came off tonight as well.