South Africa will take on Afghanistan in the last league game of the ICC World T20 this year in the West Indies. The match will be played at Barbados and will be a night game, which means that it will begin at 2.30 am IST and end at 6.00 am.

Afghanistan were handed over a drubbing by India in the first game of the tournament, which was also their first ever game against the senior teams. Of course, they played well enough to catch the eye, but the problem that they will face for this game is that they will be playing under the lights; something that enables the ball to swing around. As was evident in the game between West Indies and Ireland, chasing 130-140 under lights was never going to be easy and even bowlers like Darren Sammy, who do not have too much pace about them, had three wickets to his name.

Afghanistan will do well to win the toss and try to bat first, because chasing will be the most difficult thing to in the night.

However, even if one were to talk about their batting, the Afghanistan side showed that they were susceptible against bounce. Ashish Nehra and Praveen Kumar dished out a fair share of short stuff and the Afghanistan team gave away their wickets to some rash strokes. Or strokes that said that they were not prepared for the bouncers.

One can be rest assured that the likes of Dale Steyn, Morne Morkel and even Jacques Kallis will bowl the bouncers to the best of their ability at Afghanistan, and that is where the side could be troubled. Noor Ali Zadran obviously played a good innings of a half century, but guys like Karim Sadiq and Mohammad Shahzad need to get going.

For South Africa, their main worry before they enter the second round will be the batting order. Graeme Smith has to open the innings but who will partner him is a question. Loots Bosman seems to be a good option but that leaves Herschelle Gibbs and Jacques Kallis fighting for the third and fourth slot, and then, we have the likes of AB de Villiers and JP Duminy pushed to five and six. This will make it difficult for the hitters to take charge towards the end of the innings and that is where the Proteas will need to do a lot of thinking.

Easy win for South Africa here.

Tag :- Afghanistan   Ashish Nehra   Darren Sammy   Graeme Smith   Jacques Kallis   South Africa