Captain Faf du Plessis hopes South Africa can exploit the pressure he believes England will be under when the teams clash in the ICC World Twenty20 on Friday.
Chris Gayle‘s blistering century yesterday consigned England to defeat in their tournament opener, meaning Eoin Morgan‘s side can ill-afford to lose any of their last three group games.
With Afghanistan and Sri Lanka to come next week, England first meet the Proteas at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai, the scene of yesterday’s loss.
South Africa skipper Du Plessis, whose team start their campaign versus Morgan’s men, said: “If we put England under pressure we’re hoping they’ll almost fall back on that mentality of losing games and not being confident.
“If we were in their shoes and we’d lost that first game we would feel pressure going into the second game knowing if we lose we’d possibly be out.
“They’ll obviously be under pressure. As a team you definitely feel the heat in that moment.
“It’s such a short tournament you have to hit the ground running.”
Du Plessis and AB de Villiers go into the game in fine batting form, having hit fifties in South Africa’s last warm-up match.
In De Villiers the Proteas have a batsman potentially as destructive as Gayle.
Asked to compare De Villiers with Gayle, Du Plessis responded: “They are two completely different players but they both need the same things to succeed.
“You never see Chris go from ball one and just start smashing.
“He definitely sets himself up first and that’s the same with AB, he plays best when he assesses conditions and sees what the bowlers are about.
“When he gets that sniff he becomes really hard to bowl at.”
Source: ECB