We are back to the one match at the ICC Cricket World Cup on Sunday as Eden Gardens in Kolkata plays host to the tournament favourites India for the first time in the competition when they take on South Africa in a battle of the top two in the table.
Both these teams know they will be competing in the semi-finals later in the month so from a table standpoint this is nothing more than a dead rubber, however there is the chance to get some bragging rights should these two meet again in the tournament which might get the competitive juices flowing.
India
It is now played seven and won seven for India in this tournament after their pretty emphatic win over England last weekend. In truth, they haven’t really been tested in the event yet, which while never being a bad thing in terms of building up winning confidence and momentum, might be a concern should we get to the point where their first test comes in a match of importance. India will be looking to keep the winning habit up heading into the semi-final.
The big thing for India so far in the tournament is that their bowling has been ruthless throughout the competition. They have had to adjust the balance of their side halfway through the event because of injury but that hasn’t set them back at all. Their batting has been pretty good too and they showed against England that they are capable of winning when posting a score as well as chasing, although I think it is fair to say they didn’t look quite as comfortable doing it.
South Africa
South Africa have six wins from their seven matches and it is probably classic Proteas that their loss was against the Netherlands in the one match where they would have been overwhelming favourites to win. They went into the tournament fancied by many after a decent period of form and that is very much how it has played out on the pitches in India, although it does have to be said that they look much more comfortable when posting a score rather than chasing one.
South Africa have put up incredible scores when they have batted first in this tournament but they don’t look as fluent when they know the score that they need to get to. Their top six are all in decent form though and their bowling has been very good. There have been multiple matches where every South Africa bowler has taken a wicket so there is no pressure release for teams, who have already been under pressure when batting due to the scores South Africa have posted.
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Team News
Hardik Pandya has now been ruled out of the tournament so we won’t be seeing him again in this event. Prasidh Krishna has been added to the squad in his absence and it might be that India want to get a game into him in case he is needed down the line but that might wait until their last group game.
South Africa have given no indication that they are going to try and get a game into players who might need it but they could make one change with both Tabraiz Shamsi and Keshav Maharaj featuring should conditions dictate that. George Coetzee would be the man to miss out should that be the case.
Betting
I wonder if the toss will even be needed in this match. South Africa always look to set the score and India prefer to chase so it might be that we know how this one is going to play out before the coin lands. That makes me think we are going to get to see a fairly high scoring game. Rather than take the relatively high run line though I’m going to side with the boundaries in this one which has a line of just 62.5, which feels very low given how well these two are batting.
The Eden Gardens pitches have come under a bit of scrutiny in the tournament but there were 50 boundaries between Bangladesh and Pakistan in a match where the first innings score was only just over 200 and you wouldn’t say either of those teams are blessed with clean hitters, certainly nothing to the extent of these two anyway. I’ll be interested to see what India offer when they are tested and we might find out here but whether they are or they are not I think these two combine for more than 62.5 boundaries.
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