After facing its heaviest World Cup defeat on Thursday against South Africa, Australia captain Pat Cummins said the mood in the camp was fantastic and that the team was treating every game as a final, starting from Monday against Sri Lanka.
“Everyone after the last game was a little bit flat, but the last couple of days have been really good… The mood in the camp has been fantastic,” he said on match eve. “Every game now becomes almost like a final. You’ve got to win just about all of them,” he added.
Interestingly, the only two games the Aussies lost ahead of the semifinals at the World Cup in 2019 were against India and South Africa, the same two sides they have tasted defeat against in their first two games in 2023. “Looking back at 2019, India and South Africa were the two teams that we lost to in the round games there.
“I think in the last year, they’re kind of the two teams that we’ve had the most trouble against.
“So, the opportunity now is we’ve got some teams we haven’t played for a while that we’ve had a lot of success against,” Cummins said.