Jos Buttler says South Africa will hold no surprises for England in their crunch ICC World Twenty20 match on Friday.
Having lost to a Chris Gayle-inspired West Indies yesterday, Eoin Morgan‘s team must respond against familiar opposition in the Proteas.
England lost both recent T20 internationals versus South Africa, albeit the first was a close affair with a tight finish.
Buttler, who played in each fixture and the one-day series before, said: “We’ve focused a lot on ourselves. Nothing is going to be new that they throw at us.
“We’ve seen what they are capable of, and played against them, but we’ve got to play very well.
“We obviously have had a look at them and they’ve had a look at us. No surprises, but what it will take is one, two or three guys on our side to really stand up and make match-winning contributions.”
With three group games to go, England must find the winning habit. South Africa skipper Faf du Plessis believes they will be under pressure to do so.
However, Buttler knows that should he and his team-mates get on a winning run, World T20 success may not be far off.
“You come to these tournaments; they’re hard games,” he added. “Especially the format, to go to the semi-finals you’ve got to win games.
“That’s tournament cricket. If we lose one game and win five in a row and win the World Cup, we’d be happy with that.”
Like Du Plessis, Buttler was asked to compare yesterday’s centurion Gayle with South Africa’s dangerman AB de Villiers.
The Englishman also thinks they are “very different”.
He added: “Chris never looks under any pressure does he? He feels like he can hit sixes at will.
“Two great players. De Villiers has much more range of shots but Gayle has that power and he doesn’t really need to try anything else.
“They’re good players and that’s what you get when you turn up at world tournaments – all the best players in the world in one place.”
Source: ECB