World Cup 2023: When Temba Bavuma had to Google a term associated with Pakistan cricket team

Ahead of their World Cup 2023 encounter at the MA Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai, Bavuma had come across the word ‘mercurial’ and it left him searching for his dictionary.

Temba Bavuma, who was returning to action, revealed the interesting incident as he spoke to the press in the South Indian city as he stressed again and again that the Proteas would not take Pakistan lightly despite their poor run in World Cup 2023.

“I saw a comment that described Pakistan as mercurial. I had to Google the word, but it spoke about how a team can be good one day and not so good the other day. So, we want to make sure that when they’re good, we are so good as well,” Bavuma said as he cracked up the room full of reporters in Chennai.

South Africa last defeated Pakistan in a 50-over World Cup contest in 1999 and Bavuma highlighted the record while reiterating that Pakistan have the ability to bounce back.

“Definitely, we didn’t write out Pakistan starting the tournament I had them as one of the top four teams at the end of the group stages. So that’s the amount of respect that you have for Pakistan. We don’t have a great record, to be honest, against Pakistan in ODI. So, I think with everything that is happening around their team, the things that are not happening well for them. I think that humbles us as a team and it really gets us, I guess, to just pull ourselves back and make sure that we still focus on playing good cricket,” he added.

Pakistan headed into the contest against South Africa after losing 3 on the bounce which included a shock loss to Afghanistan in Chennai on Monday.

However, they won the toss and opted to bat on Friday and went past 250 after fifties from Babar Azam and Saud Shakeel.