I think you need to have a good balance of being competitive, being passionate about the game, but at the same time, not getting overexcited: Kohli © Getty Images
“Don’t get overexcited.”
“Stay relaxed.”
Different words with the same message, each relayed by the captain to his team on the eve of the virtual quarterfinal that is India v South Africa in the Champions Trophy 2017. Both will meet at The Oval on Sunday(June 11). With sunny skies forecast, only one will go through to the semifinal.
Knowing that the stakes are higher for one match can affect people differently. For Virat Kohli, India’s captain, he “craves games like these”. For AB de Villiers, South Africa’s captain, it’s about being clear in the mind. But the key message both teams want to give out is that they will not let the occasion get to them, they will cut out the extraneous noise, and they will focus only and supremely on the job at hand: beating the other one.
“I think you need to have a good balance of being competitive, being passionate about the game, but at the same time, not getting overexcited,” was Kohli’s take on the eve of the match. “I think the team that treats the game as normal as possible is the team that’s in a better position to get the right result.
“A lot of times, teams come in and they want to do something special and end up messing up the game in important situations. The team that can have most composure, I would say, to sum it up, will have a better chance of winning the game tomorrow. That’s what I’ve experienced in the past. You tend to get overexcited, and then you commit errors that can cost the team important runs. Or if you fail to grab all the chances because you’re overexcited and that can cost the team, as well. I think composure will be the biggest word for tomorrow.”
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