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00:00Gwen Amapaka, who we've seen in the last Test Series, making his Test debut,
00:05now being earmarked as one of the greats moving forward,
00:08and someone who can rub shoulders with a Kagiso Rabada down the line.
00:12He's learning from the best, and that's the beauty of this tournament,
00:14and not only KG, but other world-class bowlers around the world.
00:18They've all come over here, I think of Gleason, Trent Bould,
00:22we see him taking some wickets in that opener, swinging the ball like always.
00:26It's just great to see some of the greatest players in the world.
00:29Joe Root, I watched him play for the Paul Royals today,
00:32Kane Williamson, all the players are here,
00:35and it's just a great tournament to be a part of.
00:59How do you see this team improving?
01:02South Africa wasn't at the top of the world,
01:04that was at the top of the Test rankings,
01:06it was about 12 years back, 13 years back.
01:08You had different members of the squad,
01:10different leaders in the bowling world.
01:14How do you see this thing?
01:16I think the Proteas in the last few years
01:18have taken a little bit of unfair criticism, in my opinion.
01:22You've got to keep in mind all the changes that have happened
01:24in the last three to five years.
01:26There's a lot of experienced players retiring,
01:28a lot of coaching staff moving on.
01:31There's been a lot of changes, a lot of young faces, fresh faces coming in.
01:35Two new coaches, Shukri Conrad doing the Test team,
01:38Rob Walter with the white ball cricket.
01:41There's a lot of new things,
01:43and still they qualified for the T20 World Cup final,
01:46the WTC final.
01:48It is actually incredible,
01:50and I feel they deserve a lot more credit for achieving this.
01:53It's going to take a little bit of time in saying that
01:55to find that consistency that we've had
01:57maybe between 2008 and 2015,
02:00where we were consistently around one of the top teams in the world,
02:05and they will get there. It takes time.
02:07All teams have to go through those phases
02:09to find the experienced players again,
02:11to find the right mix of players.
02:13I was there in 2005, 2006 and 2007,
02:15where we were all over the place.
02:17Very difficult, very inconsistent.
02:19It was very difficult to find our groove,
02:21and then in 2008 we started clicking.
02:23But we had to go through those hard times first.
02:26AB, you mentioned about the WTC final.
02:29Seven wins in a row, getting there,
02:31but the opponents,
02:33facing a tough opponent like Australia,
02:35who have just beaten India 3-1,
02:38making a come-from-behind series win.
02:43How difficult or how challenging is it going to be for South Africa,
02:46and what are the key areas do you think they need to seize to get the better of it?
02:49Just an additional part of that question,
02:51yesterday we had a conversation with Sean Pollack,
02:54and he wasn't too excited about South Africa's prospects.
02:57So your take on that?
02:59Yes, okay, first of all...
03:05Sorry, I'm trying to find the first one again.
03:07What do they have to do to win, to beat a team like Australia?
03:09Yeah, but you asked something else first, sorry.
03:11And I was watching that six...
03:13And I was also checking this, I licked his two balls before the last over,
03:16so I've got to run down.
03:18There's no doubt Australia are favourites.
03:20So there's the first question.
03:22Proteus have done exceptionally well in the last while.
03:25It shows you they're playing a positive brand of cricket,
03:27they're going for results, I love that about them.
03:29And not only the seven wins in a row before that,
03:31there was one draw, and then a bunch of wins again in a row before that.
03:34So I think it's like 10 out of 11, 11 Test match wins.
03:37It's an incredible stat, it doesn't happen often.
03:40And once again, credit's got to go to them,
03:42and the coaching staff, and the way they're approaching their cricket,
03:45with Thien-Baba Bouma as captain,
03:47has taken a lot of criticism over the years,
03:49and look at where he's now.
03:51Taking the team to the WTC final,
03:53over and above incredible cricketing nations like India,
03:56like New Zealand, like England.
03:58So great achievement.
04:00But yes, the reason why they're not favourites
04:03is they're still very inexperienced.
04:05They haven't travelled to places like England of late,
04:07they haven't been to Australia.
04:09So travelling experience comes with time as well.
04:13Yes, they played well in Bangladesh,
04:15but it was only two Test match series
04:17against not one of the best teams in the world.
04:19So now they're up against Australia at Lords,
04:21a moving wicket against one of the best bowling attacks in the world,
04:24and a batting line-up that bats deep.
04:26They all seem to be in form,
04:28but I will never write my team off.
04:30They're a bunch of fighters,
04:32and Thien-Baba Bouma mentioned this in the press conference.
04:34He said, I will take this team to war,
04:36because I know they're going to fight for each other.
04:38So that's all you want.
04:40If you have that kind of attitude, you can achieve anything.
04:42I'll back the guys to go all the way
04:44and win this WDTC final.