 South
Africa will look to live up to their favourites tag when they take on Scotland
in their first game of the ICC World T20 on Sunday at Oval in London. Scotland
have already played one game and lost a high-scoring slog-fest to New Zealand.
South Africa has gone about very quietly in the competition so far, during
the warm-up games and even off the field. Unlike some of the other countries,
they haven't had a chance to play the minnows either, having had their two games
against Pakistan and Sri Lanka and easily disposing off both the
teams. In fact, they have won the games both ways; chasing and setting a target,
which will augur well for their team.
In the Pakistan game, the Proteas batted first and smashed a 186 in the twenty
overs thanks to skipper Graeme Smith's timely return to form - after a shoddy
showing in the IPL - and Herschelle Gibbs' carefree batting. The Pakistanis
did not reply with much as Dale Steyn ran through the batting with a 2/20 in
his four overs. In the other match, Sri Lanka was bowled out for 109, with another
superlative performance by Steyn, probably stung by the Royal Challengers' decision
to drop him from the team for the last few games of the IPL!
South Africa, to me, is definitely a team to watch out for, especially
given the balance of their team. Against Scotland, they will relish batting,
given the weak Scottish attack and that will mean that the likes of Jacques Kallis and J.P.Duminy, who haven't had too much to do with the bat in the
warm-up games could get a chance. However, having seen England falter the way
they did against Netherlands, the Proteas will not want to leave anything to
chance. Steyn's form will be complemented by Johan Botha's accurate and intelligent
off-spin bowling and despite having his Doosra banned by the ICC, he will prove
to be a handful.
On the other hand, the Scots will look for ways to surprise the South Africans,
but their bowling line-up is a major weak link. The batting should revolve around
the likes of Ryan Watson and Kyle Coetzer, with the very experienced
Gavin Hamilton anchoring the inning. However, the sense one gets is that the
New Zealand game was their best bet to get better of a stronger nation, beating
South Africa in a 20-over encounter could just be next to impossible.
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