Will South Africa Win The World Twenty20?
“I think we’ve come past that. This team has come a long way and I think we’ve proven that. Hopefully we can show that on Thursday, that’s what is exciting about it.”
Graeme Smith’s comment on being asked about his team’s choker tag doesn’t altogether abate my fears about whether South Africa will again lose a tournament that they are favourites to win.
South Africa will have to beat Pakistan and then either Sri Lanka or the West Indies if they are to win the World Twenty20 Champs. With a history of losing semi-finals, there will certainly be more pressure on the Proteas than on the unpredictable Pakistan team an Trent Bridge tomorrow.
Pakistan has explosive batsmen, two fine spinners in Saeed Ajmal and Shahid Afridi and also the reverse swing of Umar Gul. On their day they are virtually impossible to beat.
Rain fell on Trent Bridge today – something South Africa’s quick bowlers won’t mind – but on the whole Trent Bridge has offered more assistance to spinners than to anyone else. Spin is of course the one department where the South African team has always come short. But, for the first time ever, South Africa has three spinners who are all as competent as each other.
Duminy, Botha and van der Merwe spun India in Notts at Trent Bridge yesterday and although tomorrow’s surface is a new one, their services will no doubt be called upon against Pakistan in the semi-final.
Proteas coach Mickey Arthur said on the eve of the match, “The last time we were in England we watched plenty of the domestic T20 matches on TV and we noticed the success of spin bowling on English pitches. So we started our planning then and it all came to fruition when we were in Australia and started identifying pace of the ball as one way of getting amongst them.”
“We have improved in every department since the 2007 tournament” he added.
When one plays against Pakistan there is always an element of the unknown. The composition of their team changes often and South Africa has not played against them since a Test match series nearly two years ago.
“We not too worried about what they have got in their bag – we are worried about what we can do to try and get the best out of our players” said Mark Boucher this morning.
Coach Mickey Arthur hinted that the tournament might boil down to the big hitting of his middle order batsmen, “Bouch, JP and Albie have prepared very well over the last three days, I think they are ready. They are going to be faced with an opportunity in the tournament to win it for us and they are ready for it now.”
The South African team looks better than it ever has before. They bat to number ten, have three good slow bowlers and the best fast bowler in the world in Dale Steyn. Young Wayne Parnell has been a revelation and AB de Villiers is in the form of his life. Unlike Pakistan, Sri Lanka and the West Indies, South Africa’s fielding is out of the top drawer. If ever there was a perfect opportunity for them to win a big tournament it is now. But of course we have said all of that a few times before.
Mark Boucher has been a part of all those disappointing times. This is what he had to say, “We have been in a couple of semis before but there is a different feel about this team.”
“The management is different, there are new players and we have been through some huge tests in the last 18 months and we have come through with flying colours. We have handled pressure pretty well. Hopefully that is a sign of things to come in the later stages of this tournament.”
