The Proteas' failure against Australia was made up for in our success so far in the T20 World Cup. The four remaining teams should provide an awesome conclusion to the tournament.
India and West Indies have both won T20 World Cups and Sri Lanka is the second best T20 International team in the world, according to ICC rankings (http://www.icc-cricket.com/team-rankings/t20i). Yet against all odds, South Africa, with its questionable limited overs squad and performances, finds itself in the semis.
The semi-final fixtures:
Sri Lanka vs West Indies, 03 April, 15:00
India vs South Africa, 04 April, 15:00
The final will be held on 06 April at 15:00 and all these games will be played in Mirpur, Bangladesh.
India has classy players. MS Dhoni and Virat Kohli can both hit the ball from Bangladesh to Australia with little effort and Ravichandran Ashwin takes wickets while keeping economical.
West Indies, though weaker in Test matches, is more dangerous the shorter the format is. Needless to say teams must watch out for Chris Gayle and Kieron Pollard, who can both hit the ball to the moon with no effort. Amid the team's mediocre bowling lineup stands Sunil Narine, who is also one of the best spinners in T20s.
Sri Lanka has the legends Kumar Sangakkara and Mahela Jayawardene (who are both retiring from T20 Internationals after the tournament), but Angelo Mathews is easily one of the best all-rounders in the world.
Last, but hopefully the winners, South Africa's AB de Villiers, Hashim Amla and Imran Tahir are key.
Interestingly JP Duminy is doing very well for us. But I think if we are to win our most destructive batsman needs to have a good innings. If Quinton de Kock does well at the start of the innings it should motivate the rest of the team to perform really well.
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| South Africa will hope Quinton de Kock (21) will perform well near the end of the T20 World Cup. Image taken from http://sports.howzit.msn.com/ |
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