South Africa coach Shukri Conrad takes a cheeky dig at the 'chokers' tag after a T20 World Cup ad, saying the unbeaten Proteas are embracing pressure ahead of their semi-final against New Zealand.
South Africa head coach Shukri Conrad on Sunday took a sly dig at the host broadcaster of the T20 World Cup for airing a commercial connected to the "chokers" tag associated with the Proteas ahead of their game against India in New Delhi.
That commercial did not age well as South Africa thrashed India in their Super Eights opener and are the team to beat in the tournament. South Africa were finally able to shed the longstanding chokers tag by winning the World Test Champions title last year.
Responding to a question regarding pressure ahead of the T20 World Cup semifinal against New Zealand, Conrad pointed out to the "cupcakes" besides the usual chokers reference in a tongue-in-cheek remark.
"There's always pressure. I think it's what you do with that pressure and how you shift the pressure. As for the C word, I think there's another one for it, cupcakes. I thought we kind of enjoyed that," said Conrad following the win over Zimbabwe in their final Super 8s game.
"But no, there's always pressure, and it's really about embracing that pressure. And we don't do things any differently. We're going to prepare exactly the same way for New Zealand."
South Africa are a strong contender for the title after finishing runners-up to India in the previous edition.
I'm glad we are favourites for the semi-final'
"Whether we start as favourites, probably because we're the only unbeaten side in the competition. But I don't know if that adds to the pressure. I think the semi-final is pressure enough.
"Playing a top side New Zealand is pressure enough. So there's no added pressure and I'm glad that we're favourites because I always felt that as a South African team, you want to be able to play as a favourite because it's easy being an underdog."
He added: "The expectation isn't great or that much. And now we've assumed the tag which we don't really talk much about. But if we can continue doing what we're doing, then yeah, you need a little bit of luck along the way as well.
"And yeah, hopefully that will give us the result on Wednesday and then on to our home ground in Ahmedabad (for the final)," said Conrad in another witty reference to Ahmedabad where they have played majority of the games thus far.