India vs South Africa T20 World Cup 2022: 'No rest days..', says pacer Anrich Nortje before Sunday match

South African pacer Anrich Nortje talks about his bowling strategies and physical fitness before the India vs South Africa T20 World Cup match on Sunday; Here's what the bowler said.

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Anrich Nortje, a South African pacer, claimed on Saturday that he and Kagiso Rabada have one of the strongest pace attacks in cricket and that they will put the Indian batsmen to the test in their T20 World Cup match on Saturday. An Optus Stadium pitch with sharp bounce and decent carry is set to present a challenge for the Indian batting order from Nortje and Rabada. However, it remains to be seen how the Indian batting lineup plans on tackling the bowlers during the India vs South Africa T20 World Cup 2022 match. 

However, before the match on Sunday, the South African pacer indeed needs to be well-rested and in the right physical state for the desired performance on the field. TOI quotes the bowler saying, "It is difficult. I would say after Covid, it's something to get used to again. Also, with the schedule nowadays, there's so much travelling." He added saying,"Your rest days have to become your travelling days, so there's no real rest days anymore. It's a travel day, then a training day before getting used to conditions. And then you play again."

Though Anrich Nortje also showed confidence in his and his teammate's bowling capabilities. "Yes, we back ourselves. We see ourselves as one of the best pace attacks there is. I think we're definitely going to back ourselves," Nortje said on the game eve.

Nortje didn't forget to mention that as an attack, they tick all the boxes. Nortje is all about raw pace, Rabada can swing and seam deliveries upward of 145 while Marco Jansen generates steep bounce with his 6 feet 8-inch frame. Wayne Parnell has variations of cutter and Lungi Ngidi can hit the deck hard if need be.

"We have a great variety. We cover a lot of aspects. We cover a lot of bases with our attack. We back ourselves against any team to go out and do what we have to do on the day to try and get over the line."

"Then we've got two spinners as well. So we definitely back ourselves in that department, and I'm sure the boys are looking forward to tomorrow." While Nortje doesn't mind having two bouncers per over, he is still ready to judiciously use one that is there on offer.

"Yes, with T20 cricket, hopefully somewhere in the future we can have two bounces in an over. That would be unbelievable. But on wickets like these, obviously, you have one bouncer per over, so you have to try and just sort of time it properly and, like you say, not to get carried away. Sometimes it can look nice, but it's not effective."

"So try to be as effective as possible, try to keep the emotions intact," he added. For a fast bowler it is important to calm the nerves, he said. "Yeah, just try and be calm in situations where I think the adrenaline is flowing. Generally, we're just going to look to try to keep it in our areas and try and sort of identify what is a good length and a good line on the day."

With inputs from PTI