Ryan Rickelton, 103, on South Africa's Champions Trophy hammering of Afghanistan

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Ryan Rickelton, 103, on South Africa's Champions Trophy hammering of Afghanistan  21/02/2025  icc25

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00:00I do just have three questions from the South African press, so I'm just going to work through

00:16those and then we'll open up to the floor. Firstly, Ryan, what we noticed from your wagon

00:21wheel was that you scored a lot of runs in front of square. What was it about conditions

00:25or the bowling that allowed you to do that? I think here in Karachi, having had that practice

00:31game here, the wickets can be quite skiddy, so as a group we emphasised trying to hit

00:36a lot straighter. I'm trying to emphasise hitting a lot straighter for a lot longer,

00:44just because if it's skids you can obviously get bowled in RBW quite easy. So it was kind

00:49of a big emphasis from the team as well. There wasn't a lot of lateral movement as well,

00:54so it gave me the opportunity to really lunge forward a little bit and obviously look to

00:58hit hard down the ground, which I've been doing for a period of time now. When did you

01:04find out you were going to play this game? The usual stuff, always the night before I

01:08guess. You always get a little bit of an inkling at practice and stuff like that, but the team

01:12went up last night, so obviously we're stoked to be playing. And then lastly, before we

01:16open up to the floor, what is it about the conditions in the tournament that makes him

01:19so good for batting? You say that, but we bowled him out for 200. Yeah, obviously I

01:25think it's renowned to be generally quite good wickets. I think when the dew factor

01:29sets in it obviously skids on quite nicely as well. So I guess the fundamentals of it

01:36is it might be a bit batter friendly, but you still have to execute as well. We looked

01:40at the New Zealand game, they got 300 and they won quite comfortably as well. So I think

01:45every ground is going to range and be a little bit different, but if it is in favour of batter

01:49batting and the ball skids on quite nicely, obviously I'm quite happy with that.

01:56Ryan, scoring double hundred against Pakistan, then winning SA20 for MI Cape Town and scoring

02:03a debut 100 in Champions Trophy. So just talk us through your roller coaster ride, Purple

02:09Patch, especially for the last three months, the way you are performing all three formats.

02:13Yeah, if you had to ask me a few months ago would I be sitting here and things work out

02:19the way they do, I would obviously say no, but it's kind of the point where I just really

02:24try to simplify my batting. I have quite a nice foundation in what I wanted to achieve

02:28at the moment. I always want to be a three format player, so to have that base is quite

02:35nice and to see that the results in the three different formats over the last two months

02:40has been quite warming for me as well. But I think when I dumb it down a little bit for

02:46even myself is just trying to obviously emphasise more mindset and approach. If you look at

02:51the guys that play three formats really well, like Travis Head, Shubman Gills, all play

02:57similar cricket across all three formats. So I'm really just trying to keep it simple,

03:02be confident in the way I'm trying to play and obviously look to make an impact.

03:07Hi Ryan, congratulations on the century, but I would like to ask a question about South Africa

03:13because of what you were behind the wicket. You guys have played a bomb match over the

03:18year, you batted 1,300 runs, but in the second innings the ball was bouncing like you were

03:23in Australia or South Africa. So tell us a bit about that, did it change after the lights

03:30were on or what was the order that went on?

03:34We thought, I heard all this about the whack-a-clay or something like that. It looked a lot harder

03:39and a lot drier, the wicket, when we got here obviously today. It wasn't a wicket that we

03:42had the practice game on so it was a bit different for us. But throughout the game I felt the

03:46wicket was quite quick as Matt was getting it through and obviously we have some quick

03:51bowlers in our team, Keiji and Marco could really push it through. Even Vian was getting

03:56it through nicely too. So I think the wicket had pace in it, no doubt about it, but I think

04:02the variability on the bounce is what made it quite challenging for both teams. I think

04:06we just had the extra yards, the extra heights to extract maybe a little bit more out of

04:11it. Having chatted to the New Zealanders yesterday about the wickets, they said that when the

04:18due didn't set in it actually got a little bit tacky under lights. It probably was the

04:22same today, it spun a little bit more as well. And that I guess hence the decision to bat

04:27first.

04:28Vian, this is a tournament which South Africa won already many years ago, so you are very

04:39close in 2023 as well. So how is the desperation, not only you but others, Markram, Wunder Doosan

04:48of course, then Klaassen, this is the so-called once-in-a-generation sort of batting line.

04:53So do you think this is the best chance to have won the ICC tournament with your batting,

04:57with your bowling, and how desperate are you guys to win the ICC trophy again?

05:01Yeah, obviously we are desperate to win it, there's no doubt about it, but in saying that

05:05we don't burn in ourself with that extra pressure. If you look at our ODI group from the World

05:10Cup in 2023, I think it was, in India, that side that was playing there was a phenomenal,

05:15was a powerful side as well. So again, I don't think there's any extra pressure on the guys.

05:21Everyone's gained that extra year of experience, that extra year of knowledge on what they're

05:26trying to do and how they're trying to do it. Again, I think as a group we might not

05:30have had the best results coming into this tournament, but quietly I think everyone's

05:34quite confident. We do have incredibly good players in this team, not just in the team

05:39but obviously the whole squad as well. So there's guys that are maybe a bit young in

05:43the side as well that are also looking to make an impact, but I don't think we're too

05:48burdened by obviously the hunt to obviously win the whole thing. Obviously we're here

05:53to do that, but we don't let that restrict us. We're obviously here to play our best

05:59game, have fun, enjoy each other's companies. Again, ICC events, it might be the last for

06:04a few guys as they get a bit older, we don't know either. So guys are really just trying

06:08to enjoy it and hopefully that extra bit of experience and the extra bit of knowledge

06:14can take us over the line.

06:18Thank you guys.

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