From Grounds to Edens

KOLKATA: The top spot is at stake and an unconquered Indian team will certainly feel a sense of deja vu when it takes on a red-hot South Africa on Sunday in what will be a battle of equals in the World Cup.

It promises to be a fascinating contest and Virat Kohli and Ravichandran Ashwin can’t escape that “been there in this position” feeling since they were part of the World Cup squad that had a similar run in 2011.

The only game that India had lost in the 2011 edition was against South Africa when an unheralded Robin Peterson had smashed Ashish Nehra for 19 runs after Indian batting imploded in Nagpur despite a hundred from Sachin Tendulkar. Kohli, who is one short of record-equalling 49th ODI hundred, and Ashwin are the only players in the current squad who were part of India’s title-winning run. On Sunday, Rohit Sharma’s players need to guard themselves from complacency and emulate the all-conquering Australian team of 2007 which won the World Cup without losing a single game.

A win and 16 points would confirm India’s top spot with a match left against the Netherlands.

South Africa’s batting line-up, filled with power-hitters and game-changers will test India’s ‘pace galacticos’ before the semi-finals.

An unprecedented demand of tickets has added to the excitement to the Eden contest which in bigger picture will determine the group topper heading into the semifinals.

Consistently racking up those humongous scores, it has been a challenge bowling to South Africa in this World Cup. It had notched the tournament’s biggest score of 428/5 batting first against Sri Lanka in its opening match.

In all of its five matches it has batted first South Africa has posted 300-plus totals with its chief enforcer being de Kock who leads the run-chart with 545 runs from seven matches. Its only weakness has been chasing which was exposed by the Netherlands which bundled it out for 207 inside 43 overs defending a modest 245.

The Proteas also made a mess of its 271-run chase against Pakistan before tailender Keshav Maharaj sealed an edgy one-wicket win.

India on the other hand has showed it can chase and defend well.

Chasing would be easy with dew around at the Eden but South Africa would be wary to bat second and would look to go all out up front.

“Eat. Sleep. Take five-wicket haul. Repeat” -- reads a post from the ICC in praise of Indian pacer Mohammed Shami’s second five-for in three matches in this World Cup. Call it a twist of fate but Shami has made the biggest difference to this Indian team following premier all-rounder Hardik Pandya’s ankle injury that ruled him out of the World Cup. It forced a twin change with Suryakumar Yadav and Shami brought in place of Pandya and Shardul Thakur for the New Zealand match. Since then, Shami has been on a roll taking 14 wickets in three matches at an average of 6.71.