The Dhaka Times Desk The Champions Trophy tournament is starting today at 3:30 PM Bangladesh time with India-South Africa match. The two teams last met in the 2011 World Cup match. India's top five batsmen at that time were Virender Sehwag, Sachin Tendulkar, Gautam Gambhir, Yusuf Pathan and Yuvraj Singh. The bowling line-up consisted of Zaheer Khan, Ashish Nehra, Munaf Patel and Harbhajan Singh. Most of the players are absent from the Champions Trophy. Although South Africa are not in the same situation as India, they do not have Graeme Smith in their team. Who was injured a few days ago. Jacques Kallis also did not show personal reasons. Dale Steyn, the current number one bowler, cannot play the first match.
In the last two years, Gary Kersten has made the Proteas the number one Test team with his coaching. The Champions Trophy is Karsten's The last mission. He said that he wants to retire after winning the trophy. After winning the Champions Trophy after 1998, he is very optimistic about his team to become champions again.
However, South Africa have at least managed to keep their full focus on cricket. But India is completely opposite. Teammate Sreesanth Match fixing in IPL After that, Indian cricket was in turmoil. Dhoni's team can be said to be tired of talking about spot fixing in newspapers and media everywhere in the last few days. However, despite this, India has performed well in the Champions Trophy warm-up matches. The team's confidence boosted by scoring 308 runs against Australia in Cardiff to bowl out the Aussies for 65 runs.
Today, India will face South Africa at the same ground in Cardiff. However, Cardiff's pitch is not guaranteeing anything to anyone. Because even though Australia was bowled out for 65 runs in the warm-up match, India's top order also failed on this pitch. About the pitch, Indian captain Dhoni said, "The pitch is not swing friendly, but there is something for the pacers, which they can take advantage of." South Africa won by chasing 257 runs in the warm-up match against West Indies at the same ground.
However, South Africa's ODI record in the last 6 years in England is not good at all. They won only 2 out of 10 matches! That could be a tough challenge for captain AB de Villiers. The Proteas are also a bit behind as India has the experience of defeating South Africa in the Champions Trophy in 2002.
Dhoni's optimism about the match, “Although we have a good record against South Africa in the Champions Trophy tournament, the battle on the field is the last thing. So our stochastic decisions during the game will decide the win or loss of the match.”
On the other hand, AB de Villiers said, "If there is no bowling, we will try our best to keep India under pressure for the first 15 overs." And if the bat comes in hand, then I will keep the wicket and continue to bat aggressively."
India: (Probable Group) 1. Shekhar Dhawan, 2. Rohit Sharma, 3. Virat Kohli, 4. Dinesh Karthik, 5. Dhoni (captain and wicketkeeper), 6. Suresh Raina, 7. Ravindra Jadeja/ Irfan Pathan, 8. Ashwin, 9. Bhuvneshwar Kumar, 10. Ishant Sharma, 11. Umesh Yadav
South Africa: (Probable Group) 1. Hashim Amla, 2. Alviro Petersen, 3. Colin Ingram, 4. AB de Villiers (captain and wicketkeeper), 5. Faf Plessis, 6. Duminy, 7. McLaren, 8. Robin Petersen, 9. Kleinveldt, 10. Morne Morkel, 11. Totsobe
Reference: Cricinfo
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