 India and South Africa will meet in a dead rubber Super Eights game at
Trent Bridge, Nottingham. India has already crashed out of the tournament following
two successive losses in the second stage, while South Africa is through to the
semi-finals. With not much at stake except pride for India, they may want to experiment
a little, but that will more be in the form of shuffling the batting and bowling
order than personnel changes given that M.S.Dhoni may want to continue with the
guys taken in for the previous game.
With India already out of the tournament, it may just be a trifle difficult
for them to be able to concentrate on the game, but Dhoni would want to win
this before flying out of the country. South Africa, on the other hand, will
need to carry forward the momentum into the knockout given their penchant to
choke at wrong times and end up bowing out of big tournaments.
Ravindra Jadeja’s experiment at number four was a definite no-no, and
one may see Yuvraj Singh bat at that position. But more worrying for
Dhoni will be the form of his top three batsmen, with Rohit Sharma having
lost his touch after the brief period of renaissance and Suresh Raina
finding life handling the short ball very difficult on pitches that afford a
little extra for the bowlers.
The bowling looks decent, especially when the spinners come on, but Zaheer
Khan’s lack of match fitness will be closely monitored. Ishant Sharma had
a bad day against the English, and with Zaheer having the ability to reverse
the ball – and it certainly is reversing – it could be a good idea
to start with Ishant and R.P.Singh instead. However, with Praveen Kumar
waiting in the ranks, it could just be a good time to rest Ishant and get him
in.
South Africa has a set opening combination and a brilliant number three, which
means that they will want to concentrate on their numbers four and five –
J.P.Duminy and A.B. de Villiers – who havent had a lot to write home about
in tournament. Both had come into the World T20 with a purple patch going for
them in the IPL, and if they could turn things around for them, the South African
batting could be one of the best in the business.
The bowling looks good for South Africa without looking too flashy. However,
the best performances have been coming from a virtual greenhorn in Wayne Parnell
and it would be interesting to see how the quick, pacy bowling of Parnell is
handled by the Indians. The Johan Botha-Indian batsmen contest will be
an interesting one as well, and one that the Indians would want to win.
|
