WHEN an Australian cricketer walks into the press conference with a bright smile on his face on the eve of a big match like Alex Carey did on Monday, you just know that they are in the mood for a scrap.
If you are the South African senior men's national cricket team that can not be a good sign, given that you are about to face them at Rawalpindi on Tuesday. The Australians' confidence stems from their record-breaking five-wicket victory over England this past weekend, a victory which saw them record the highest successful run chase in the history of the ICC Champions Trophy and their second-highest in ODI cricket.
Now, going into the tournament, many teams would have taken this Australia side lightly seeing that they are without captain Pat Cummins, Mitchell Starc, Josh Hazlewood, Marcus Stoinis and Mitchell Marsh for the entire tournament. However, after the victory against England, South Africa, like all the other teams in the tournament, will now know well not to sleep on the Aussies in ICC events.
In the most modest way, Carey revealed that despite South Africa's victory over Afghanistan last week, their confidence should see them move past their old foes.
"We know they're a great team, they'll be strong throughout the tournament but I feel like our confidence is high and we're really excited," Carey said.
Carey acknowledged South Africa's strengths as an ODI side but still believes they have the right talent to win the contest having faced them multiple times in the past two years.
"South Africa are playing really good one-day cricket at the moment and they look like they've got great balance across their 11 players," he said.
"We have played South Africa quite a bit in the last 24 months so we know how they line up. They are strong across the board which I think for us it's a great opportunity to come out here, coming off the back of a great game against England, play with a lot of freedom, take the game on.
"With our bowling, get stuck in and try to take early wickets, Adam Zampa in the middle does his thing and Nathan Ellis with all his tricks at the backend. With our batting group, Travis will try to smack them at the top with Matt Short. We've got (Steve) Smith and Marnus (Labuschagne) through the middle and hopefully set it up for (Glenn) Maxwell to go big at the end."
With a severely weakened bowling attack, Australia seem to heavily rely on captain Smith's genius bowling changes, field placement and accurate reading of the game to close the gap left by the absence of the experienced trio of Cummins, Starc and Hazlewood.
"I think the way Steve uses the bowlers is a strength of ours. 'Smudge' is a great captain tactically and he reads the play really well," said Carey. "I'm still really confident with 50 overs of bowling however that looks for us."
Another big match loading! 🏏🏆🌍
— Proteas Men (@ProteasMenCSA) February 23, 2025
Set to take on the Aussies in a blockbuster clash on the 25th! 🗓 It’s time to bring the heat and show them what the Proteas are all about! #WozaNawe #BePartOfIt pic.twitter.com/7LZ16zMWK3
The encounter is set to get underway at 11am.