Ryan Rickelton, 103, on South Africa's Champions Trophy hammering of Afghanistan
21/02/2025
icc25
21/02/2025
icc25
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00:00I do just have three questions from the South African press, so I'm just going to work through
00:16those and then we'll open up to the floor. Firstly, Ryan, what we noticed from your wagon
00:21wheel was that you scored a lot of runs in front of square. What was it about conditions
00:25or the bowling that allowed you to do that? I think here in Karachi, having had that practice
00:31game here, the wickets can be quite skiddy, so as a group we emphasised trying to hit
00:36a lot straighter. I'm trying to emphasise hitting a lot straighter for a lot longer,
00:44just because if it's skids you can obviously get bowled in RBW quite easy. So it was kind
00:49of a big emphasis from the team as well. There wasn't a lot of lateral movement as well,
00:54so it gave me the opportunity to really lunge forward a little bit and obviously look to
00:58hit hard down the ground, which I've been doing for a period of time now. When did you
01:04find out you were going to play this game? The usual stuff, always the night before I
01:08guess. You always get a little bit of an inkling at practice and stuff like that, but the team
01:12went up last night, so obviously we're stoked to be playing. And then lastly, before we
01:16open up to the floor, what is it about the conditions in the tournament that makes him
01:19so good for batting? You say that, but we bowled him out for 200. Yeah, obviously I
01:25think it's renowned to be generally quite good wickets. I think when the dew factor
01:29sets in it obviously skids on quite nicely as well. So I guess the fundamentals of it
01:36is it might be a bit batter friendly, but you still have to execute as well. We looked
01:40at the New Zealand game, they got 300 and they won quite comfortably as well. So I think
01:45every ground is going to range and be a little bit different, but if it is in favour of batter
01:49batting and the ball skids on quite nicely, obviously I'm quite happy with that.
01:56Ryan, scoring double hundred against Pakistan, then winning SA20 for MI Cape Town and scoring
02:03a debut 100 in Champions Trophy. So just talk us through your roller coaster ride, Purple
02:09Patch, especially for the last three months, the way you are performing all three formats.
02:13Yeah, if you had to ask me a few months ago would I be sitting here and things work out
02:19the way they do, I would obviously say no, but it's kind of the point where I just really
02:24try to simplify my batting. I have quite a nice foundation in what I wanted to achieve
02:28at the moment. I always want to be a three format player, so to have that base is quite
02:35nice and to see that the results in the three different formats over the last two months
02:40has been quite warming for me as well. But I think when I dumb it down a little bit for
02:46even myself is just trying to obviously emphasise more mindset and approach. If you look at
02:51the guys that play three formats really well, like Travis Head, Shubman Gills, all play
02:57similar cricket across all three formats. So I'm really just trying to keep it simple,
03:02be confident in the way I'm trying to play and obviously look to make an impact.
03:07Hi Ryan, congratulations on the century, but I would like to ask a question about South Africa
03:13because of what you were behind the wicket. You guys have played a bomb match over the
03:18year, you batted 1,300 runs, but in the second innings the ball was bouncing like you were
03:23in Australia or South Africa. So tell us a bit about that, did it change after the lights
03:30were on or what was the order that went on?
03:34We thought, I heard all this about the whack-a-clay or something like that. It looked a lot harder
03:39and a lot drier, the wicket, when we got here obviously today. It wasn't a wicket that we
03:42had the practice game on so it was a bit different for us. But throughout the game I felt the
03:46wicket was quite quick as Matt was getting it through and obviously we have some quick
03:51bowlers in our team, Keiji and Marco could really push it through. Even Vian was getting
03:56it through nicely too. So I think the wicket had pace in it, no doubt about it, but I think
04:02the variability on the bounce is what made it quite challenging for both teams. I think
04:06we just had the extra yards, the extra heights to extract maybe a little bit more out of
04:11it. Having chatted to the New Zealanders yesterday about the wickets, they said that when the
04:18due didn't set in it actually got a little bit tacky under lights. It probably was the
04:22same today, it spun a little bit more as well. And that I guess hence the decision to bat
04:27first.
04:28Vian, this is a tournament which South Africa won already many years ago, so you are very
04:39close in 2023 as well. So how is the desperation, not only you but others, Markram, Wunder Doosan
04:48of course, then Klaassen, this is the so-called once-in-a-generation sort of batting line.
04:53So do you think this is the best chance to have won the ICC tournament with your batting,
04:57with your bowling, and how desperate are you guys to win the ICC trophy again?
05:01Yeah, obviously we are desperate to win it, there's no doubt about it, but in saying that
05:05we don't burn in ourself with that extra pressure. If you look at our ODI group from the World
05:10Cup in 2023, I think it was, in India, that side that was playing there was a phenomenal,
05:15was a powerful side as well. So again, I don't think there's any extra pressure on the guys.
05:21Everyone's gained that extra year of experience, that extra year of knowledge on what they're
05:26trying to do and how they're trying to do it. Again, I think as a group we might not
05:30have had the best results coming into this tournament, but quietly I think everyone's
05:34quite confident. We do have incredibly good players in this team, not just in the team
05:39but obviously the whole squad as well. So there's guys that are maybe a bit young in
05:43the side as well that are also looking to make an impact, but I don't think we're too
05:48burdened by obviously the hunt to obviously win the whole thing. Obviously we're here
05:53to do that, but we don't let that restrict us. We're obviously here to play our best
05:59game, have fun, enjoy each other's companies. Again, ICC events, it might be the last for
06:04a few guys as they get a bit older, we don't know either. So guys are really just trying
06:08to enjoy it and hopefully that extra bit of experience and the extra bit of knowledge
06:14can take us over the line.
06:18Thank you guys.