South Africa batting coach Ashwell Prince revealed that they understand the magnitude of the situation they've brought themselves into, but it's also crucial to remain in the moment and stay calm. South Africa are just 69 runs away from wining WTC Final 2025 against Australia and still have eight wickets in hand.
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00:00Ash, obviously a great century from Aidan Markram, and I suppose he's had a couple of struggles over the last, you know, however many seasons, and also some amazing moments.
00:10Just what kind of work has he done before this match, and what have you seen in him that maybe suggests he was the guy for a big occasion?
00:17Well, we certainly know that he's someone for the big occasion. Of that, there's no doubt.
00:24He's done a little bit of technical work, not a lot.
00:26But I think in the last little while, he's just had a little tendency of his hands sort of pushing away from his body, cutting across the ball sometimes.
00:38But it wasn't a big fix. As soon as he saw a few videos of himself doing that, it was quite a simple fix.
00:45When I talk about his ability to play big innings, you know, albeit in a losing cause at Newlands on a very, very difficult pitch,
00:57he played in unbelievable innings there where everybody else was really struggling, and he got 100 on that surface.
01:05And so we know what he's capable of.
01:08And can I just ask you, well, what did you say to the batters?
01:11You know, a target like this has only been chased three or four times here at Lourdes before it looked like a lot of runs.
01:17Like, what were your words of advice when they went out there?
01:19I felt that, you know, the message has been the same really throughout.
01:30Make them believe that they can do it.
01:35And then just sort of step out of the way and allow them to go and do it.
01:38I think, you know, with that, there were signs starting yesterday evening.
01:47There are certain signs when you're sitting and watching the game that all those type of things might be positive for us.
01:57Obviously, in terms of trying to wrap up the Australian tale, there's a little bit of frustration with the ball dropping short all the time of the slip cordon.
02:04But if you reverse that, it might happen the same when we bat.
02:08And so Ryan Rickleton goes fairly hard at one early on, and it drops short of the slip cordon.
02:14So, you know, that's a little sign that that might be something in our favor.
02:18We try and, you know, stick to the positives as much as we can.
02:22And then again this morning, when you watch the tail end is sort of sticking,
02:29there are signs there that the stats suggest that day three might be the best for batting.
02:37And they were pretty comfortable, numbers 9, 10, and 11, up against pretty good bowling attack.
02:46And with the sun out, you know, you look for certain positives that the sun's out,
02:52the Knicks aren't carrying to the slip cordon.
02:54So can we feed off those type of things, you know, and then obviously big partnerships are important.
03:01I think, you know, Mulder Shugira mentioned coming in early in a position that he's not really accustomed to,
03:12having lost an early wicket and just sort of settled everything down with Aiden.
03:17I think that partnership was quite crucial.
03:19And then the next partnership that's still ongoing is obviously massive.
03:25Being so close with a night to think on it, do you try to put the end result out of your mind?
03:33Or do you allow that to get into the thought?
03:36No, look, I think, again, to come back to your question, Frido,
03:41one of the things we said before the run chase is the game will finish when it finishes, you know,
03:49and whether that is tomorrow at lunchtime or whatever time,
03:53the end of the match will take care of itself.
03:56For us, the most important thing is to remain in the moment, stay in the moment.
04:02And obviously, from a batting point of view, that means play one ball at a time, stay in the moment.
04:06Whenever the game finishes, that's when it will finish.
04:08How's Tim with Amstrand?
04:14I'm not sure yet.
04:16I'm sure if Seizwe is attending to that at the moment.
04:20Actually, at tea time, we had to make a big call whether he continues to bat
04:27and how it will affect his stroke play, how that might affect Aiden's rhythm.
04:34If twos are being turned into one, that they can't sort of run the twos or the threes.
04:41And the both of them were adamant that Tim was going to continue.
04:45He wanted to continue.
04:46Aiden was adamant that the partnership is the key.
04:52And obviously, had Stubbs gone in, we would have still had Timber's wicket intact.
04:59But you start in a new partnership.
05:01They were feeling pretty good and they wanted to continue.
05:04And Aiden was well aware that he'll have to curb his intensity just in terms of running between the wickets
05:10to allow Timber to ease his way through it.
05:14Can I just jump in there?
05:15We've seen Timber, it feels like he's been fighting his whole life for all sorts of reasons.
05:19And he's fighting again because of his hamstring.
05:21What do you think anything like that says about him?
05:23Well, it says a lot.
05:32You know, it's not done yet.
05:35But as you say, he's had to fight throughout his career.
05:40And this could be a defining moment for his career, I believe.
05:44You know, it's the biggest stage in terms of test cricket.
05:53Maybe I should answer the question after the game.
06:01I was actually going to ask some similar questions to Timber.
06:05But I guess the fact that Aiden was also so adamant,
06:10what does that say about, I guess, the respect that this team has for him as a leader?
06:16And just how tough is he going out there with that?
06:20He's tough. Timber is tough.
06:22Aiden has great respect for Timber.
06:26In fact, I think this team's greatest strength is the unity that they have in this camp.
06:35You only have to look at Tristan Stubbs, celebrator, a wicket, to understand that.
06:41And, you know, they are well aware that South Africa have had much greater individual players.
06:50But they've got something special going up in that dressing room.
06:53And, you know, that sort of helps them to drag each other along.
07:02Just a follow-up.
07:05Yeah, just to quickly say, like, just in that, you'd rather answer some questions tomorrow.
07:10Like, how hard is it to stay calm for everyone right now?
07:15I think Shukri must get a lot of credit for that because that's one of his strengths,
07:20making sure that everybody stays calm within the dressing room.
07:24So as soon as Aiden and Timber came up the stairs, the first thing he said was,
07:28guys, will you do the same as you do every night?
07:32Don't change a thing.
07:33Tomorrow morning, come and do the same warm-ups that you do every day.
07:35Just the same processes.
07:39You know, we obviously understand the magnitude of the situation and what's at stake.
07:43But just to stay calm and take it, you know, take it in your side.
07:51Ash, the narrative around South Africa cricket and not getting over the line,
07:58but the little individual moments, Aiden not kind of producing,
08:02Timber kind of fighting, as Telford said, even Lungi last night.
08:06Do the individuals kind of see themselves within a broader narrative and, like, proving people wrong?
08:11Do you guys address that sort of, as I said, broader context?
08:15Is that something that you guys speak about?
08:16Or is it just something you like the cricket taker of itself?
08:18No, if I'm honest, in terms of the build-up, even before we got here,
08:23there was no talk about proving anybody wrong.
08:27You know, obviously, there was a lot of thought about our route to the final
08:31and who we played against, whatever the case may be.
08:33And people have their opinions about that.
08:36I can promise you now that we'd love to play against everybody more often
08:41You know, especially if there's some big money series that we can also make some money.
08:48You know, so as far as that's concerned, you know, it's not about proving anybody wrong.
08:54But I think the important thing from Shukri's point of view also is to make the players aware
09:00of how good they are.
09:02And that's a big thing.
09:04They are good players.
09:05And, you know, if you take them lightly, you might come short.
09:12I'm sure Australia wouldn't have approached the game in that manner.
09:16But perhaps the rest of the world, watching the final or predicting what's going to happen in the final,
09:21might have had that opinion.
09:23But there's some great players in there.
09:26KJ Rabada is phenomenal.
09:27Led the way from the front five on day one and then four in the second innings.
09:33You know, there's some unbelievable players up there.
09:37And when you put it all together, you can achieve great things.
09:40Asher, on the way that the intent with the bat yesterday morning started by Temba,
09:48that it's continued into the start of the second innings, obviously he's led that.
09:53But how much of a role did you play and what was your messaging to them yesterday morning
10:00and to try and carry that over into how they did this afternoon?
10:05I think what we try to do is always bring perspective.
10:12I think, you know, having read a few things, a lot about our first innings,
10:19a lot has been said about maybe negativity or too defensive.
10:26What I would say is that you have three of the world's best fast bowlers
10:32who hardly missed length at all in that 22-23 over period
10:38on conditions that, let's be fair, suited the bowlers on day one.
10:45And when I talk about perspective, you know, let's shoot straight.
10:50212 all out could have been 140 or 150.
10:54You had one or two decisions been given
10:56or we had made the right call on a review.
11:02So the fact that we were bundled out for 1-3-8,
11:06I don't think is far off what they achieved
11:09had one or two decisions gone our way.
11:14Ashul, you spoke about how calm the coaches kept everyone in the dressing room,
11:19but it's cliched, but when a partnership like that is going on
11:22in a big World Cup final, are there any superstitions?
11:25Are people allowed to move?
11:26And you played a lot of test figures as well.
11:29Are you going to sleep tonight?
11:31How has it all been so far?
11:34I'm not sure about how I'm going to sleep tonight.
11:36But, yeah, I think, you know, there was a bit of a sense
11:40that everybody's got to stay in the same seats up there.
11:47I think when, I wouldn't say there's any particular individual
11:50that's really superstitious up there,
11:53but, like, when you have some sort of rhythm going,
11:58you just want to maintain the same rhythm, I think.
12:00So everybody sort of got their chance to go to the bathroom
12:04at the drinks breaks or when Timba had to get some treatment,
12:09we could stand up and get to the bathroom.
12:11But that's all good.
12:13Like I say, that's one of the things about them
12:16is that they're really tight.
12:18And obviously, they're just there cheering on every ball,
12:22loving every ball with those two out there.
12:23Yeah.
12:25Ashul, we've seen KG take nine workouts.
12:28You've seen Aiden is a depth.
12:30The first capping, it's 100 timbers on the verge.
12:33How important is it in a game like this
12:36for your senior players to shoulder the responsibility,
12:39particularly when you have a very young line-up?
12:42Yeah, I think it's massive that they lead from the front.
12:45And I think the young players, you sort of,
12:48they get dragged along.
12:51Lungingiri is not a young player,
12:52but he came to the party as well.
12:55I think it's, you know,
12:56you have to recognize certain performances
13:00and sometimes it's not measured only in the wickets column.
13:05Vian Mulder bowled the spell in the first innings
13:07where he conceded one, 1.5 runs and over.
13:11You know, there are certain passages of play
13:13that you have to recognize
13:14and they all contribute in the end to where the team is at.
13:19But certainly, you know,
13:21you need your senior players sort of to lead from the front
13:24and Arribada is phenomenal.
13:27This morning, this first kind of hour tour of play
13:35must have been pretty frustrating.
13:38How were you feeling as Australia were kind of piling on the runs late
13:42in their innings?
13:43And was there any issue once the team was back in
13:49and preparing to go out to bat,
13:50getting them up again and maintaining them?
13:52No, I don't believe there was any issue.
13:56So if first of all,
13:58to answer the question about how Australia
14:00were going about their business,
14:02I would rather suggest that they were
14:03going about their business quite comfortably.
14:06I wouldn't necessarily say they were piling it on
14:08because there was a lot of maidens.
14:11There was a lot of tight overs.
14:14They were comfortable.
14:16And as I said,
14:17we tried to take the positives out of that,
14:19that if number 9 and 10 or 10 and 11 can be that comfortable,
14:24surely if the stats suggest that the pitch plays its best on day three,
14:29perhaps that's what's happening.
14:30And when you add the sunshine to that,
14:33I think that's exactly what happened.