 South Africa will take on Ireland in the 34th game of the ICC Cricket World Cup on March 15. The game will be played at the Eden Gardens in Kolkata,
the venue which was earlier to host the game between India and England
but the game had to be pushed away due to the non-preparedness of the ground.
The two teams have come into the game with contrasting results. In the previous
game, South Africa were able to win a very close game against India when they
chased down 297 for a win. That would give them a lot of confidence to play
in this game in a match that could be a potential banana-skin.
Click for Live Score Card of South Africa Vs Ireland
On the other hand, Ireland were crushed by West Indies in the previous game
which means that they would be struggling against a much stronger side in South
Africa.
The group has been interestingly poised now for some time and this result will
hopefully clear it further. South Africa have three wins from four games
and that will mean that a win here will put them in the quarter-finals while
Ireland will be knocked out of the tournament. Apart from that, if Ireland do
manage to edge out South Africa, there is no doubt that they will still have
a decent chance of going through while South Africa will need to beat Bangladesh
in the last game.
South Africa had had their main spinner Imran Tahir injured for the previous
game and had missed it due to his thumb injury. It will be interesting to see
if the side risks him for this game where the side will be playing against Ireland,
who have not been really good players of spin.
When one talks of batting, the good news was that Jacques Kallis seemed
to have found his batting touch after missing out in the first three games of
the tournament. He will be a dangerous man for the game and could well be looking
to bat through the innings for the side. The other batsman to look forward to
is Graeme Smith, who has been under the cosh for some time and will need some
runs to get his confidence.
For Ireland, it will depend on the likes of Gary Wilson and William
Porterfield to ensure that the side can go on to get some runs against the bowling
of Dale Steyn and Morne Morkel.
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