NEW DELHI: Ahead of the T20I match against India on Thursday, South Africa all-rounder Dwaine Pretorius said his aim is to imbibe the calm approach and the self-belief that Chennai Super Kings skipper MS Dhoni has in his own game.
Pretorius is part of the South Africa squad for the five-match T20I series against India and talked about key learnings from Dhoni. "The biggest thing I learnt from him is how calm he is at the crease and how much he tries to take pressure off himself and put it onto the bowler. He doesn't get too excited. He doesn't get too down on himself. Anything is always possible. He's very optimistic. He believes he can do anything. I'm going to try and bring that into my game - the calmness but also the self-belief that, from any position, any game can be won," Dwaine Pretorius said in a press conference.
"As a bowler, you can still lose the match if you have to defend 18 off the last three balls and as a batter you can win it. He made me realise that at the death, the batter isn't under more pressure, it's actually the bowler that is under more pressure," he added.
Proteas' all-rounder made his Indian Premier League debut for Chennai Super Kings in 2022, he only played 6 matches. In fact, Pretorius stitched up a match-winning partnership with Dhoni against Mumbai Indians in the successful chase of 157 runs.
"What was nice about the CSK franchise is that it is very experienced. We all understand that cricket doesn't always go your way," Pretorius said.
"It's very important to just take the positives out of a bad season and try and build for a stronger future. It's all about building for the next year or three years and trying to make sure a bad season is not a complete loss," he added.
Talking about the environment in the CSK team, Pretorius said, "Given a lot of responsibility to prepare like you want to, come up with the plans that you believe will work and make sure you execute your plans."
South Africa will go against India in the five matches T20I series, which commences on Thursday at the Arun Jaitley Stadium in New Delhi.