"He was massively down" - Aiden Markram on Anrich Nortje's mindset after his match-winning spell in South Africa's T20 WC 2024 opener

South African captain Aiden Markram has suggested that Anrich Nortje was not in a good head-space ahead of T20 World Cup 2024. Hence, the right-handed batter underlined the squad's happiness after Nortje's match-winning spell against Sri Lanka as South Africa made a victorious start to their campaign.

Nortje had a forgettable IPL 2024 campaign as part of the Delhi Capitals, maintaining an economy rate of 13.36 in six matches. He also took only six wickets at 42 apiece. Nevertheless, Nortje was on fire on Monday, bagging figures of 4-0-7-4 as South Africa bowled Sri Lanka out for just 77 runs.

During the post-match presentation, Markram stated he hopes to see Nortje maintain that same form moving forward. He said:

"Wasn't worried about him, but it's a fantastic day for him. From a mental point of view, he was massively down. So the boys were really happy for him. And hopefully he kicks on for the rest of the tournament."

Despite the target being a modest 78, the Proteas struggled a touch to get there and needed 16.2 overs on a tricky surface. Quinton de Kock top-scored with 20, while Heinrich Klaasen played a sensible cameo to take their side over the line.

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"Speaks to quite a tough wicket" - Aiden Markram

Aiden Markram. (Image Credits: Getty)

With South Africa securing a fairly hard-fought win, Markram hopes they can deliver a refined batting performance in the tournament moving forward. He added:

"Yeah happy with the win. The batting was a little up and down, speaks to quite a tough wicket but we found some way to score runs. It's a tough one from a batting perspective. You try to take the pitch out of it, but if the ball misbehaves or there's low bounce, it's just one of those things and hopefully we can take some learnings out of it."

South Africa will next face the Netherlands on June 8 in New York. The Proteas will be under some pressure, given the Netherlands' wins over them in the last two ICC events (2022 T20 World Cup and 2023 ODI World Cup).

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