'Don’t Think Much Needs to be Said, Everyone’s Hurting': Pat Cummins After Crushing Defeat Against South Africa

Australia captain Pat Cummins said that everyone in the team is hurt after their underwhelming start to the World Cup campaign in India. The five-time World Champions lost their first two matches against India and South Africa as they are now placed at the ninth spot in the points table. The Australian batters failed to adapt to the Indian conditions as they looked out of plan in both Chennai and Lucknow. Australia played three-match ODI series in India prior to the WC but the conditions were suitable for batters in those matches.

Australia suffered their biggest defeat (in terms of runs) in World Cup history – 134 runs as South Africa analysed the pitch well and were too good for them in Lucknow.

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Cummins heaped praise now wicketkeeper batter Quinton de Kock for his sublime century which gave South Africa an advantage in the game.

De Kock, who will retire from the format after the World Cup, oozed confidence as he fetched 109 off 106 balls with the help of eight boundaries and five maximums,

“I thought Quinton (de Kock) batted really well, couldn’t get a breakthrough. From where they were, we were quite happy with 310, thought it was chaseable,” Cummins said in the post-match presentation.

The Aussie captain suggested that the ball was nipping a bit more under lights and the Proteas bowlers did well to take advantage of it.

“Looked like hard work out there tonight, their bowlers bowled really well, think it nipped around a bit more under lights,” he added.

On being asked whether it would’ve been easier to bat first, Cummins asserted that Australia need to perform regardless of whether they bat first or second.

“Really hard to say, if we want to be challenging in this tournament we need to find ways of performing regardless of batting first or second,” he said.

The 30-year-old further said that the team is hurting a the moment and they will take a couple of days off.

“Don’t think much needs to be said tonight, everyone’s hurting, we’ll try and take a couple of days off and then make amends to come back stronger in the next one. There’s a few things we need to tidy up,” he concluded.