AT the start of this World Cup, I labelled co-hosts Australia and New Zealand as the two strongest teams in my book. If I had to pick three and four, they’d be the two teams that face each other in Melbourne today, India and South Africa.

The Proteas are a curious case at the moment. They aren’t playing as well as they were not so long ago. But for me, they still start this game as slight favourites.

India’s batting may have outmuscled Pakistan, but it’s a different story when you look at the South African squad. Everywhere you look, you see quality players. Hashim Amla, Faf du Plessis, David Miller and J.P. Duminy are all players that would walk into any ODI side. Then, of course, you have the captain A.B. de Villiers who is simply one of the world’s best ODI cricketers.

When I compare the bowling attacks of the two teams, even if India’s bowlers gained some measure of redemption against Pakistan after a tough summer, South Africa do hold the edge. Like his captain with the bat, Dale Steyn is among the best in the business with the ball, and enjoys good support from the likes of Morne Morkel, Vernon Philander and Imran Tahir.

Let’s not forget, though, that New Zealand did beat South Africa rather convincingly in the warm-up fixture while Zimbabwe too pulled off no mean feat in dismissing the Proteas’ big guns with less than 100 on the board.

That should tell India that their opponents are not unbeatable. But they’re going to need all the runs they can get today. So they can ill-afford a repeat of their failure in making a solid start count as they were guilty of doing against Pakistan.

It may be just the second match for either side but there’s still a fair bit riding on it. Whoever come out on top should go on to win this group, and both sides would be aware that status would pit them against the fourth-placed team in the other group come the quarter-finals. I would, in fact, stick my neck out and say the result could well determine how the final itself might shape up.

India have already played a fair bit in Melbourne over the summer where the likes of Virat Kohli and Ajinkya Rahane have done really well. So they will know the wicket a little better than their adversaries. If the defending champions are in the mood to send out a potent message to all their leading rivals, then they are unlikely to get a better opportunity to do so than this game.

Speaking of opportunities, kudos to the West Indies for taking theirs and bouncing back from the humbling loss to Ireland with a huge win over Pakistan yesterday.

The match was a good indicator of the importance in taking early wickets. In both matches, the West Indies posted over 300, but the difference yesterday in Christchurch was their bowlers had virtually sealed the game with that initial salvo that left Pakistan tottering at four for 1.

Pakistan really have a huge hole to climb out of now. Not only have they lost their opening two games but lost them badly which will have a telling impact on their net run-rate. So they are staring at a possibility that even victory over Ireland may not necessarily guarantee them a quarter-final berth.

By Special Arrangement for Dawn

Published in Dawn February 22nd , 2015

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