The Afghanistan coach, Jonathan Trott, has fired shots at the Proteas ahead of Thursday’s ICC T20 World Cup final in Trinidad & Tobago.

The South African born-and-raised former England batter believes that there is no pressure on his team heading into the knockout game in the Caribbean.

The Proteas have played in semi-finals before, but have never gone on to reach a final or win a World Cup in anyone of the two white-ball formats.

Trott said his team will play the semi-final without ever having been labelled as chokers and they have nothing to lose.

“I think it's a case of us just looking at what we need to improve on, which is a few little areas,” said Trott.

“It’s nothing too major, we just need to tighten up on a few things.

“I think it's just a sort of mindset shift if I like. But I also think, we go into the semi-final with no scarring or no history with regards to semi-finals. This is uncharted territory for us.

“We're just going to go out there and give it our all. There's no preconceived ideas on it all, or history of failure or success in semi-finals in past years.

“For us it's a new challenge and I think that makes us dangerous in the semi-finals as a side with nothing to lose and obviously a lot of pressure on the opposition.”

Thursday’s semi-final at the Brian Lara Stadium is scheduled to start at 2:30am.

Morgan Piek OFM Sport