South African pacer Anrich Nortje on Saturday said that he and Kagiso Rabada form one of the best pace attacks in world cricket and backed the bowling unit to test Indian batters in their T20 World Cup clash, here on Saturday. (More Cricket News)
Nortje and Rabada are expected to pose a challenge for the Indian batting line-up on an Optus Stadium pitch offering steep bounce and good carry.
“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 eve of the game.
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."
