
South Africa head coach Rob Walter says this Proteas team is different from the past which failed to win the close games. The comments came a day before South Africa's semi-final against Afghanistan in the ongoing T20 World Cup.
It is to be noted that the Proteas have won all of their games in the tournament so far despite most of them being close ones. Coach Walter says the misses of the past belong to the people who missed them.
South Africa have had a tendency to losing games under pressure and have never won an ICC title.
"The near misses in the past, they belong to the people who missed them," Walter said at the pre-match press conference.
"To be honest, this team is a different team. We own whatever is ours to own. And so, our nearest reflection point is this tournament where we've managed to get over the line. So that's what we think about," he added.
The SA coach, however, agreed there'll be anxiety mixed with excitement given the occasion.
"There'll be a mixture of emotions which is with anxiety but excitement and I think anyone in any sport, if they get to this phase of a competition, feels that. And so really, it's just acknowledging that and accepting it and then just understanding what you'll do with that. We still want to play our best cricket in the key moments of the game tomorrow," said Walter.
Afghanistan coach Jonathan Trott, however, believes that the pressure is on Proteas and not them.
"This is uncharted territory for us. We're just going to go out there and give it our all. There's no preconceived ideas on it all, or history of failure or success in semi-finals in past years. For us it's a new challenge, and I think that makes us dangerous in the semi-finals as a side with nothing to lose and obviously a lot of pressure on the opposition," said the Afghan coach.