South Africa talents must step up to keep Cricket World Cup hopes alive after West Indies Ageas Bowl washout

Although 7.3 overs of play were possible and South Africa had lost two wickets in that time, captain Faf du Plessis confirmed the team feel confident about their ability to start winning matches at this tournament – a must, if they are to maintain any hope of making the semi-finals.

The next game for the team is against Afghanistan in Cardiff on Saturday.

It’s going to be crunch time and they will need an improvement on the weather that wrecked their clash with the West Indies.

The skipper said: ‘The feeling in the camp is still very strong. The guys are still enjoying being on tour, enjoying being here. The guys are having fun. It is just performance-wise, we haven’t put in the performances we need.

‘Generally, I find that when a team starts losing two or three games, it can happen that there are a few cracks that can appear in a team and the blame game can start.

‘And I do honestly believe that we have been very far away from that.

‘That is a strong sign of us as a team. Now it is just the performance and the skill side of cricket that needs to take over.’

South Africa are looking for individual players to put their hands up with their next game against Afghanistan.

Du Plessis added: ‘KG (Kagiso Rabada) did that against India as a small part of a role in a game. He picked the bowling unit up by just being the X-factor player that he is, so right now, we need individuals to stand up and step up to lift the team’s morale.’

In the end on Monday Du Plessis was pleased he did not have to play in a shortened game, which would have favoured West Indies.

He added: ‘The further the game goes, the closer to a t20 game, being two down already, the odds are heavily in their favour. So as it got a bit later in the day, then you’d rather get the point and go.’