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Proteas white-ball captain Aiden Markram says the team is fully locked into their ICC T20 World Cup mission as they continue to blaze their way through the competition.
South Africa once again ended an opponent's unbeaten run at the World Cup when they walloped West Indies by nine wickets in the penultimate Super 8 tie yesterday.
Markram, who starred with the bat for an unbeaten 82 runs off 46 balls, says they are by no means feeling like things are easy, having beaten all the in-form teams – New Zealand, India and the Windies – so far.
"Ja, it doesn't feel easy to be honest. Every game and every meeting we have been fully locked in, and we've been on good and bad sides at World Cups and it's definitely not something this group would take for granted," said the skipper.
"I don't think it's even worth mentioning to the group [that we've beaten all the in-form teams], the guys have a lot of pride and we're really on a mission to try and achieve something.
"And you sort of don't want to create things where there isn't really anything, so we need to guard against it based on what our eyes tell us, we'll mention it, but for the time being the guys have been tracking really well."
Asked whether there's any concern that the team could be peaking too soon in the tournament, the 31-year-old was quick to shoot the suggestion down.
"Peaking too early? It's hard to say, we're just taking it game by game and trying to tackle it head on, and we'll see where it sort of gets us," Markram added.
"So ja, hopefully we can keep continuing playing the good cricket we are playing."
Next up for the Proteas, who have already qualified for the semifinals, is neighbours Zimbabwe, who have already been eliminated, and Markram says they will not treat the match any differently as they conclude the Super 8 stage.
"Ja, it can sometimes be more nerve-wracking, to be honest, but you give them the absolute respect that they deserve, they're here for a reason and have beaten some quality teams in the group stage to come into this.
"So, again, if you want to win a competition, you want to keep the good things going for as long as possible and you don't want to take your foot off the gas, and I'm sure that's where a lot of the conversations will be around going into that game [on Sunday]."
