South Africa captain Temba Bavuma’s picture from a pre-World Cup captains’ meet went viral on social media. The photo showed Bavuma sitting on a chair alongside other players on the stage, and he appeared to be sleeping. However, Bavuma responded to the viral picture and clarified that he wasn’t actually sleeping. England’s Barmy Army shared the photo on X (formerly Twitter) with a caption mocking Bavuma. In response, Bavuma tweeted, “I blame the camera angle, I wasn’t sleeping.”
Despite the viral photo, the South African team is preparing for the World Cup without key pacers Anrich Nortje and Sisanda Magala, who were ruled out due to injuries. However, under Bavuma’s leadership, the team has shown improvement and recently defeated Australia 3-2 in a ODI series, coming back from a 2-0 deficit. The Proteas won the last three matches by more than 100 runs each.
South Africa’s opening match in the World Cup is against Sri Lanka at Arun Jaitley Stadium in Delhi on October 7. In their last warm-up game against New Zealand, South Africa lost by seven runs in accordance with the Duckworth-Lewis method due to inclement weather. New Zealand posted a score of 321 for 6 in 50 overs, with Devon Conway and Tom Latham scoring half-centuries. Lungi Ngidi and Marco Jansen took three wickets each for South Africa. Despite a good fight, South Africa could only score 211 for 4 in the stipulated overs, with Quinton de Kock scoring 84 of 89 balls and Rassie van der Dussen contributing with 51.
Despite the challenges, South Africa remains focused on the upcoming World Cup tournament.
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