As the T20 World Cup looms large, South Africa have already struck the first blow, winning the first T20 match at Dharmasala quite handsomely. It wasn’t easy though – chasing a score of 199 never is. But India would be worried about their inability to defend a score as high as that.
Captain MS Dhoni’s decision to go with medium pacers was evidently the wrong one as all three of them – Bhuvneshwar Kumar, S. Arvind and Mohit Sharma – were brutally exposed by the South Africans. All three medium pacers were ineffective with each going for 40 to 50 runs in their 4 overs. R. Ashwin was the only decent bowler for India, giving away just 26 runs in 4 overs and picking up the crucial wicket of AB de Villiers.
It really is strange why Dhoni would trust medium pacers so much when everybody knows that in international cricket such bowlers are really nothing but cannon fodder for batsmen. Virat Kohli, the new Indian Test captain has got it absolutely right, picking 3 fast bowlers in his Test team – which has gotten him great results, such as the series win in Sri Lanka.
This throws into question Dhoni’s fame acumen as a captain. Has India’s most successful captain ever finally lost it? He is making all the wrong decisions and his batting is not what it used to be. He is a shadow of his former self. Already many cricket fans in India have been wondering if it wasn’t time for their Captain Cool to move on. Cricket has changed over the last couple of years and Dhoni seemingly has failed to keep up.
South Africa would be very confident as they gear up for practice for tonight’s match. But they shouldn’t expect the pitch at Cuttack to offer the same help to their fast bowlers as the one in Dharmasala. Cuttack is known to have a slow track offering a plenty of help to spinners.
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South Africa’s #1 spinner Imran Tahir will be their most important bowler here. Tahir has been a revelation so far and his career has been going from strength to strength. He is today one of his country’s most important bowlers, next only to Dale Steyn – which just goes to indicate how far he has come after his early struggles in international cricket.
Regarding the team changes, India are likely to play either Harbhajan Singh or Amit Mishra instead of Axar Patel, who was disappointing. South Africa would be more than happy with the side that played the last match, so we expect no changes in their side, unless they opt to play two spinners considering the slowness of the Cuttack track.
The Teams
India: 1 Rohit Sharma, 2 Shikhar Dhawan 3 Virat Kohli, 4 Suresh Raina, 5 MS Dhoni (capt & wk), 6 Ambati Rayudu, 7 Axar Patel/Stuart Binny, 8 R Ashwin, 9 Bhuvneshwar Kumar, 10 Mohit Sharma, 11 S Aravind/Harbhajan Singh
South Africa: 1 AB de Villiers (wk), 2 Hashim Amla, 3 Faf du Plessis (capt), 4 JP Duminy, 5 David Miller, 6 Farhaan Behardien, 7 Chris Morris/Albie Morkel, 8 Kagiso Rabada, 9 Kyle Abbott, 10 Marchant de Lange/Eddie Leie, 11 Imran Tahir
Match Conditions
It’s been raining cats and dogs here in Cuttack for the last couple of days and we just hope there will be a cricket match today. It would be a shame if there isn’t, as all the tickets have been sold out and the crowd in this part of the country has been starved of international cricket. As said earlier, it’s a slow track here in Cuttack and it should be hard work for the faster bowlers.
Watch India take on South Africa in the 2nd T20 match at Cuttack live on Star Sports at 7:00 pm later today!
