South Africa captain Temba Bavuma is hoping to kickstart a World Cup double for his country as the cricket and rugby teams play England on Saturday.
The Proteas meet Jos Buttler’s men in the Cricket World Cup in Mumbai from 9.30am UK time, before the Springboks face Owen Farrell’s side in the Rugby World Cup semi-final at the Stade de France in Paris from 8pm that evening.
Bavuma – whose team won their first two matches in India, against Sri Lanka and Australia, before a shock defeat to Netherlands on Tuesday – said: “We’ll be supporting the Springboks and they’ll be supporting us as well.
Saturday 21st October 9:00am
“We play first so the responsibility is on us to get things going the right way.
“They actually sent us a message to our team meeting wishing us luck in our game. As players, we have the responsibility to put smiles on the faces of our countrymen and come back with the win.”
Bavuma expects ‘one hell of a game’ against England
South Africa thumped a World Cup-record score of 428-5 against Sri Lanka in their opening match, during which Aiden Markram smashed a 49-ball century – another competition record.
Highlights from Delhi as South Africa smashed the highest World Cup score en route to a 102-run thrashing of Sri Lanka
Bavuma believes Saturday’s game at Wankhede Stadium could be a run-fest as both sides look to rebound from upsets in their previous matches.
England lost to Afghanistan by 69 runs in Delhi on Sunday, two days before the Proteas were knocked off by the Dutch, defeated by 38 runs.
The 33-year-old added: “If I was a cricket fan I’d want to be watching South Africa versus England.
“Both teams are looking to prove themselves. Both teams will want to eradicate and deal with whatever issues they had.
Highlights as England’s World Cup hopes were dealt a major blow following a historic 69-run defeat to Afghanistan
“It could be one hell of a game of cricket if two teams of this calibre play close to their best.
“There’s individuals in both camps who want to put their hand up for their team. I think it will be a tightly contested game.
“It can be a batter’s paradise here, you get value for your shots and the ball tends to travel further. If it is your day, you can fill your boots.
‘We have put Netherlands defeat behind us – it was a blip’
“We’ve had hard conversations as a team and where things went wrong for us from a batting, bowling and fielding point of view [against Netherlands]. We’ve put that behind us.
Highlights from Netherlands’ historic World Cup win over South Africa on Tuesday
“We also acknowledge the fact that in the last couple of months, we have played a lot of good cricket. So it’s not to overlook that and allow one ‘blip’ in our game to override everything that we’ve done.
“It’s easy to second-guess yourselves, second-guess your processes and your game, so it’s not to forget all the good work we’ve done.”
Nasser Hussain joins Ian Ward to preview England’s ‘must-win’ game against South Africa in the Cricket World Cup
Watch England vs South Africa live on Sky Sports Cricket and Sky Sports Main Event from 9am on Saturday (first ball at 9.30am). You can also stream the game with NOW.
Follow the match across skysports.com and the Sky Sports App with a live over-by-over text blog and in-game video clips.
Follow the Rugby World Cup semi-final between England and South Africa (8pm kick-off) with a text blog across skysports.com and the Sky Sports App.
