Graeme Smith
India and South Africa are going to fight it out on the 23rd January in Centurion to win the fifth and final match between the two nations. The series at the moment stands at 2-2, thus making the final match a series-decider.
South Africa would be happy with the way they played in the last match, which they won by 48 runs. South Africa had started off pretty well with Amla scoring a swift 69 off 64 balls. However with some extravagant fielding by the Indian players the Proteas were 118 for the loss of 5 wickets.
However JP Duminy and Botha helped South Africa with respective knocks of 71 and 44 runs. South Africa ended the innings at 265 runs for the loss of 7 wickets.
Thus in spite of taking early wickets India failed to contain the South Africans. In fact the main stream bowlers were less than effective and it was the part timers who did quite well. Yuvraj Singh took three wickets while Raina, Rohit Sharma and Pathan did well to keep their economy below 5.
South Africa backed up their competitive total with some brilliant bowling from the three fast bowlers upfront. Tsotsobe took the early wicket of Sharma and was quite economical with 2 wickets in 6 overs having given 25 runs. Steyn and Morkel too were very economical with economies less than 4.
However it would be unfair to say that India was out played because Kohli played a beautiful knock of 87 and was still on the crease when the players had to leave the field due to rain.
With the ICC Cricket World Cup in mind, Smith in an interview said that it would be great to win a series against India (Ranked no. 2) before the World Cup to set the tone for the World Cup. However he added that the World Cup by itself is an event, which requires confidence and the team which does the requisites on the field, eventually wins.
In reference to the final ODI he said that none of the teams had an edge over the other. He further put in that the South African team was multi dimensional and the addition of Imran Tahir to the squad adds an extra advantage to the team.
Smith is quite happy with the performance of Robin Peterson and Johan Botha. He feels that with them performing well the batting lineup has increased and gives him more choices to choose from.
Thus whether India or South Africa wins the match, one only hopes to watch some good cricket, that would prepare both teams for their final goal of winning “the Cup that matters”.
Tags: 5th ODI, Centurion, Cricket, Cricket World Cup, Graeme Smith, India, ODI Series, South Africa, World Cup
