WTC Final: 'Everybody walked away' - Stuart Broad's surprise role in South Africa's game plan
Image credit: ICC
NEW DELHI: South Africa head coach Shukri Conrad revealed that his team spent an "enlightening" evening with England pace legend
Stuart Broad
ahead of their World Test Championship final against Australia at Lord's.
Broad, who retired from international cricket two years ago, finished with 604 wickets in 167 Tests, many of them against the Aussies.
The 38-year-old joined the South African team for dinner on Sunday to share insights ahead of their title clash against the defending champions starting Wednesday.
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"It was just a casual chat but if the guys hadn't called time at 10:30 pm (2130 GMT) we'd still be there chatting," Conrad said at a media interaction at Lord's on Monday.
"Everybody walked away thinking that was great."
Conrad also spoke about former South Africa captain
Graeme Smith
's visit to Sunday's training session.
"He's a legend in South African cricket, the most successful Test captain we have had," he said. "He's not going to impose himself but if anyone wants to have a chat he's there for that."
He clarified that these meetings were informal rather than structured advisory roles.
"It's just using whatever we can," he said.
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"If it adds value, great."
Responding to critics who suggested South Africa had a soft path to the final by avoiding Australia and England during the WTC cycle, Conrad was firm in his response.
"I'm tired of speaking about it. We're here and we've got a chance to walk away as world Test champions," he said.
"Playing Australia, it doesn't get any bigger than that. What's gone before counts for absolutely nothing at the minute.
We're quietly confident going into this game that we can pull one over them.
"We still hold Test cricket very dearly. Our fixture list might not speak to that, but this is the biggest final all of our players have ever been involved in and their biggest match."
Heading into the final, South Africa's relatively inexperienced batting line-up has come under scrutiny.
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"The inexperience is very apparent in terms of the number of Tests played and their place in the ICC rankings," Conrad admitted.
"So, I think it's pretty normal that the chat is all about the bowlers when you've got guys like
Kagiso Rabada
, ranked two in the world, and Marco (Jansen) and (spinner) Keshav (Maharaj)."
"But I think there's a quiet confidence among the batting group. They got a lot of confidence, with hundreds for different players at different stages. So yeah, while there might not be superstar names among them, I think as a collective we're pretty confident."
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