Kagiso Rabada is hopeful South Africa can draw a line under a desperate past couple of weeks as they look to reignite their World Cup charge against the West Indies in Southampton.
Three successive defeats have seemingly left the beleaguered Proteas in the last chance saloon, with another setback almost certain to rule them out of contention for the knockout stages.
Their bid has been hampered by injuries to key personnel while Cricket South Africa's revelation that it rejected AB De Villiers' overtures to reverse his international retirement for this tournament a couple of months ago has been a major talking point in the last few days.
Rabada would not be drawn on the De Villiers situation but assessing his first World Cup experience, he said with a smile: "It's been interesting.
"There's a lot been happening off the field. So it's a bit of a weird stage in terms of for the Proteas and cricket in South Africa.
"We've been playing good cricket so, hopefully, in this tournament, we can do more of the same.
"There's been a lot happening off the field and we're just looking to clear that out of our heads. But it's been enjoyable.
"It's exciting. This is what you want. It has been enjoyable but it has come with its challenges in terms of our team."
Rabada is now the undoubted pace spearhead for South Africa following a tournament-ending shoulder injury for Dale Steyn.
Lungi Ngidi is set to miss out on the south coast as he continues his recovery from a hamstring complaint, depleting their fast bowling stocks further.
The Windies, by contrast, have a number of options available to them with the experienced pair of Shannon Gabriel and Kemar Roach awaiting their tournament bows.
Rabada, though, said: "I think that we have to deal with what we have. There's no point in complaining about it. Unfortunately we've had quite a few problems in this tournament regarding injury.
"So we've had to work our way around it and we're going to have to work our way around it for the next game. There's no point in complaining."
Andre Russell's long-standing injury to his left knee looked to flare up for the second successive game in the Windies' defeat to Australia at Trent Bridge on Thursday.
However, the all-rounder is set to feature on Monday, with assistant coach Roddy Estwick saying: "Andre will be fine.
"Andre is a warrior, he is a soldier. He's a strong man mentally and he will be up for the game.
"He's been really good for us. When we sat down and had our plans, we didn't expect him to bowl as much as he's been doing, but he's been brilliant, so no problems at all with Andre."
