By Sunil Gavaskar
South Africa have done very well to come back after their loss to India in the opening encounter of the Champions Trophy.
The return of Dale Steyn to the attack certainly gives them a sharper edge than in the first couple of games when he was absent.
Morne Morkel’s injury is also a blow because they do not have the experienced Jacques Kallis to back them up in case one of their bowlers is getting a hammering.
The performance of Ryan McLaren with both bat and ball has been the highlight of their campaign and it shows what an extended run in the playing eleven can do to the confidence of a player.
McLaren’s left-handed batting at the top of the tail is taking the Proteas to scores that did not look possible earlier.
The South African batting still depends on their skipper AB de Villiers and Hashim Amla. But they have a good supporting cast in Colin Ingram, David Miller Faf Du Plessis and JP Duminy.
Ingram has grabbed the opportunity of the opening spot to play some commanding innings, but the others have still not quite fired. When they get going South Africa will have a formidable total on the board.
Run outs are part and parcel of the limited-overs game as batsmen try to steal the extra run but Duminy’s judgement has not always been good in this tournament and another misjudgment from him could well prove costly.
De Villiers has used the spinners quite well and rotated the bowling between Peterson and Duminy. South Africa’s fielding remains top class and so they will always be making the opposition struggle for runs.
England have also recovered well after the loss to Sri Lanka despite putting a near 300 total. Jimmy Anderson remains their main weapon and when he bowls well England looks a completely different team.
The batting at the top of the order is a little bit of a concern since they do take their time and overs to get going and down the order they have some handy hitters who don’t always get the number of overs that would help them make an impact.
England are still a batting unit that approaches the 50 overs game in the old fashioned way of looking to keep wickets in hand till the final overs and that’s why they sometimes end up 30 or 40 runs shorter than they should have.
Their big advantage is that they have bowlers who are no rabbits with the bat and so they bat deep and that should stand them in good stead when a few runs are required.
If the weather holds it should be a game to watch out for.