Cricket: Cricket-South Africa motivated by poor ODI record against Bangladesh, says Markram

(Reuters) -South Africa are motivated by the desire to prove themselves against Bangladesh, Aiden Markram said on Monday as he called on the team to build on their massive 229-run World Cup victory over England.

Bangladesh have won three of their last four one-day international meetings with South Africa, including a 38-run win at the 2019 World Cup.

“We haven’t done particularly well against them in the past, so that’s extra motivation for us to come out and replicate what was a good performance against England,” Markram told reporters ahead of Tuesday’s game in Mumbai.

“From an intensity level and a standards level, that’s something that we’re going to try to focus on and trust that if we take care of those sorts of things, hopefully it’s enough for us on the day.

“They’re a fantastic team. If you don’t rock up on the day and if your skills let you down against a team like Bangladesh you will be put under a lot of pressure. That’s probably where we’ve got it wrong in the past.”

Markram added that Heinrich Klaasen, who scored a blistering 109 from 67 balls in the win over England, was working hard to be back up to speed after looking spent while batting in hot and humid conditions in Mumbai.

“He certainly was manned down. The conditions were pretty brutal. He did a lot of hard work for us out there and I think it took quite a lot out of him,” Markram said.

“He pulled up nicely after the game. The body was really sore and he was quite fatigued. But he’s been trying to get treatment and rest yesterday and very much so the same today in order to get himself good.

“You will do well to keep him off the cricket field. He’s quite a tough guy and he’ll be itching to go again tomorrow, I’m sure.”

South Africa are third in the World Cup standings with three wins from four games. Bangladesh are sixth with one win. The top four advance to the semi-finals.

While South Africa will go into the game off the back of a sensational win over England, Bangladesh lost their last match by seven wickets against India.

However, Bangladesh captain Shakib Al Hasan said form would not affect the match, adding: “In a World Cup it doesn’t matter whether you won your last game or you lost your last game.

“We saw South Africa flying high, we saw they lost against the Netherlands as well. They played brilliantly against England. This does happen in cricket, especially in the World Cup.”

Shakib said that he had recovered from the injury that kept him out the loss to India, but added that Bangladesh would be without fast bowler Taskin Ahmed against South Africa due to a shoulder issue.

(Reporting by Aadi Nair in BengaluruEditing by Christain Radnedge)