India has kept its winning streak against Pakistan in the Cricket World Cup 2015 as well by defeating them with a promising margin of 75 runs. But if history keeps on repeating itself, then bad news is awaiting for Indian fans, because they have almost the same record against the Proteas. Both the teams have met each other three times earlier in the World Cups and all the three times South Africa have been victorious. Even in the 2011 WC where India was the champions, the only competition they lost was the one against South Africa. Both the teams will be playing their second match of the tournament on 22nd February at Melbourne. India needs to toil hard if they wish to stop the history from repeating itself for the fourth time.
Also Read: India vs South Africa: Clash of the Titans
Can India defeat South Africa?
May it be a world cup match or a normal 50-50 game, toss has always been a turning point of the game. The cricket experts and well-wishers of Dhoni and co have suggested that India should bat first if theywin the toss. The logic behind batting first is India cannot take the risk of giving South Africa the chance to put the scoreboard pressure over them. Apart from this a backup plan should be set as well if MSD loses the toss. The first thing in this scenario MSD and co can hope for is that South Africa chooses to bowl, but if they elect to bat then there will be a lot of pressure on Shami, Bhuvneshwar, Ashwin etc.
A lot depends upon the openers Rohit Sharma and Shikhar Dhawan. We have seen in the near past that India has won many matches with these two giving a boost start to the Indian batting. Both of them are assets, with Rohit Sharma being very cautious with the ball and playing careful shots, while Dhawan being a bit more outraging by playing his trademark shots on the Off-side. Both of them need to stay on the crease for as long as they can and give India a base for setting up a big total. A lot will be dependent on them because if they do not play well and if India loses early wickets then the pressure will come on the middle order for setting up a defendable total for their bowlers.
If the two openers are unable to sustain on the crease then the rest of the job lies in the hands of the middle order. In this situation Rahane should come up the order at one down and bat before Virat Kohli. Since Kohli is not that effective against swing bowling, so Rahane should come early as he has got better technique to play the swing. If he manages to stay on the crease for a good amount of time and plays well then the other batsmen down the order like Kohli, Raina Dhoni will find it easy to play their natural game once Rahane gets out. But if Kohli comes before Rahane and loses his wicket then India will need some miracle in order to sustain all the 50 overs against South African bowling.
Tags: Cricket World Cup, CWC 2015, India, MCG, Melbourne Cricket Ground, ODI, Proteas, South Africa, World Cup
