Publications
Partners
London - While South African cricket fans spent Sunday coming to terms with their World Cup loss to Bangladesh at The Oval, English sports lovers were dealing with an upset of their own.
It came in the form of Anthony Joshua, who lost his WBA, WBO and IBF world heavyweight titles after he was stunned by the little-known Andy Ruiz Jr in the early hours of Sunday morning in New York.
The 29-year-old Joshua, who was born in Watford, was previously undefeated and was considered to be the man putting heavyweight boxing back on the map.
It is a defeat that has threatened to severely hurt Joshua's legacy, and English press was not holding back on Monday with The Times quoting Joshua's agent, Eddie Hearn, as saying that Joshua's career could be over if he does not win his rematch against the Mexican.
The Proteas, meanwhile, still have an opportunity to put their World Cup campaign back on track if they can get an unlikely victory against India in Southampton on Wednesday.
In trying to explain his side's loss on Thursday, Gibson used the Joshua story as motivation for his players.
"There is no anger with me. It's cricket we're playing and it's sport. There is nothing that says you're going to win because you might be the favourite," the coach told media.
"Look at Anthony Joshua last night.
"He was the favourite and he got put on the floor, and I'm sure he's going to get up and go on in his next fight and he'll probably win.
"We must look at that sort of situation and get ourselves up off the floor, dust ourselves off and go and put our best game out on the field."
That is all very well, but it is hard to think that the loss to Bangladesh will not impact the South Africans psychologically.
The likes of Kagiso Rabada and Chris Morris struggled badly with the ball while Aiden Markram, Faf du Plessis, Rassie van der Dussen, David Miller and JP Duminy all made handy starts with the bat but were unable to kick on and play a match-winning knock.
Now, against one of the world's best sides in India, they must find something from somewhere.
"We go back to the last 10 games we played, which we won eight or nine of with the same guys who are in the dressing room now," Gibson said.
"We keep reminding them of that and we show them what they have done in their recent past. We're actually not a bad team.
"We're not playing great at the moment, but we're not a bad team. We just need to put it together and we know we can.
"If we can get it together in the next week and start to get some momentum, then it gives us confidence going forward.
"When you lose two games, your confidence takes a hit, but you've got to remember that you're not a bad team. You don't become a bad team overnight. That's the message."
@LloydBurnard is in England covering the 2019 Cricket World Cup for Sport24 ...
