Shukri Conrad calls on Proteas to land first blow against India in high-pressure T20 WC clash

There was a time when India poured scorn on the T20 game. They thought it all rather silly and even sent a makeshift team to the inaugural T20 World Cup in South Africa almost 20 years ago now. 

But as Mother Cricket decreed, they would go on to win the whole darn thing, unearthing an all-time great captain in MS Dhoni in the process, and setting in a wind of change through the IPL that would lay the foundation for their status as a modern-day global superpower.

The fruit of that labour is now being showcased in full HD colour at this T20 World Cup. India are the defending T20 World Cup champions, having won the silver trophy again two years ago in Barbados, boast a team that is loaded with youthful superstars reared in the IPL, and will have the support of 132 000 fanatical fans draped in blue cheering them on when the co-hosts meet the Proteas in Ahmedabad in their Super Eights clash on Sunday.

All of this though comes with a great degree of responsibility, and, of course, pressure. Whereas Dhoni and his troops could meander through their South African safari back in 2007, even enjoying a few laughs with their Pakistani opponents in a bowl-out in Durban, the Class of 2026 under Suryakumar Yadav’s leadership has their every failure placed under the microscope - none more so than top-ranked opener Abhishek Sharma who has been dismissed for three consecutive ducks at this T20 World Cup. 

It is through this lens that the Proteas are viewing Sunday’s blockbuster, preferring to embrace the occasion, and turn the expectation on to their opponents instead.

“I think pressure is a big thing, you know, pressure both for us and them,” Proteas coach Shukri Conrad said on Friday. “I think we all talk about the pressure of playing against the top side, but we're not quite aware of what the pressures they are under.

“And I'm not, for one, suggesting that a guy (Sharma) that has three noughts in his last three matches comes under pressure for his position in the side. No, I think they're an inexperienced side in World Cups. They've been missing two huge players in Rohit (Sharma) and Virat (Kohli).

“We saw what that does for their one-day side. And if we can put them under early pressure, yes, who knows, you know, but they've still got a wonderful side.”

The monstrous crowd expected on Sunday has always been referred to as India’s “12th man” with many opposing teams buckling under the cacophony of noise. But it can also backfire if the opposition gets on top.

Conrad is hoping his team can seize the initiative early on to help settle the nerves.

“Their bowling attack obviously centres around Bumrah and Chakrabarti and their batting line-up, they love hitting sixes, they like putting you under pressure from the first ball,” he said.

“But if we can strike a few early blows with the ball and similarly withstand an early onslaught with the bat, then that will go a long way to giving us the right result.”

The World Test Championship-winning coach believes his team is certainly in the right frame of mind to spring a major upset.

"The guys, they've got experience at World Cups, they've got experience of IPLs, they know what playing in India is about. The guys have been brilliant in that respect," Conrad said.

"The guys get out, they play their golf, they play their padel. .And, yeah, when the time comes to do some graft, they do that, but they manage to balance everything particularly well.

"Yeah, that's been the easy bit. We know that it's going to get ramped up now with Super 8s, etc. But, yeah, I'm pretty confident that the guys being nice and balanced as to how we prep for the first round, we'll keep that and do it our kind of way, the Super 8s as well.

"But the guys have been particularly good in, yeah, just leading quite a balanced time whilst we've been here."