One of the favourites of the tournament, South Africa started their campaign with a comprehensive win over the West Indies. As usual, it was an all round performance by the Proteas that sealed the deal. The West Indies looked in the game for a moment or two but then the momentum quickly shifted back to the South Africans due to good performances by Imran Tahir and AB de Villiers. Both the teams surprised me with their combinations. I picked their possible playing elevens in my last post and both the units came out with some surprises.
When was the last time we saw South Africa playing three spinners and two fast bowlers in the eleven? Traditionally their strength has always been pace but today it was their spinners who helped restrict West Indies after a strong start. The West Indian openers would have come out expecting to face Steyn and Morkel first up but instead they had to deal with Botha. It was a brilliant move by Graeme Smith as it resulted in the early dismissal of Chris Gayle. Gayle likes the ball to come on to the bat in the first few overs and once the spinner was on first up on a slow Kotla wicket it was always going to be difficult to play the big shots. If you look at his dismissal he was reaching for the ball which just shows the slow nature of the wicket. Imran Tahir got tapped early on but he got four wickets which really left the West Indies reeling. Steyn was still lethal on a slow wicket and helped wrap up the innings. It was important to get Pollard and Sammy as they can be very destructive and Steyn got them for no score.
Once they bowled well, it was left to the batsmen to finish this game and it was done with ease. AB de Villiers has continued his good form and it was good to see Smith and Duminy get some runs as well. Overall, an all round performance by the Proteas, can’t pick any weaknesses as of now. However, as we move further in the tournament they would have to play only two spinners as some other tracks may not be as helpful. Although AB de Villiers got the man of the match, my candidate for the award would have been Imran Tahir as he helped get wickets when West Indies looked really dangerous. Give it to the bowlers sometimes.
The West Indies have a lot of soul searching to do. As one of the panelists at the pre match analysis said today “They have been consistent at being inconsistent.” When you have players like Gayle, Sarwan, Chanderpaul, Bravo, Pollard and Darren Bravo, how can you collapse so many times. They have a lot of talent in their batting but somehow they don’t really gel as a team. The Bravo brothers were really good with the bat today. Both were aggressive and really made Graeme Smith rethink his strategies. I was really happy to see Darren Bravo play. You could see the Lara resemblance in the way he batted, his mannerisms etc. He has that typical Caribbean flair to his batting and it was on exhibition at Delhi. Most of their batsmen got starts but they tend to lose wickets in a heap and when that happens you don’t get too many on the board.
The biggest worry for the men from the Caribbean is their bowling. I was surprised to see neither Rampaul nor Russell in the eleven. Kemar Roach was the only genuine fast bowler in the attack. Bravo and Pollard are batting all rounders and can’t be depended upon to bowl with consistency. They took a real gamble with Pollard mainly because of his big hitting ability and it did not pay off. When you take such a gamble you have to make sure that such a player is efficient in at least one department. We know how destructive Pollard can be with his batting but it is a just a matter of when he clicks. His bowling is a bonus but I really think if you play Pollard you have to play him up the order not as low as number eight. For the next game, I think they should get in either Russell or Rampaul just to bolster their bowling.
A great weekend awaits us but let us first see what we have tomorrow. The Trans-Tasman rivals face-off at Nagpur and Bangladesh take on Ireland at Mirpur. Australia should sail through tomorrow but New Zealand usually perform better against their neighbours and we have to wait and watch if they can do it tomorrow. It is really difficult to pick up a winner in the game between Bangladesh and Ireland. Bangladesh are the better side but they need all their departments need to click tomorrow.
Australia and New Zealand should retain their line-ups that played their first games. If I was Daniel Vettori I would be tempted to open the bowling or let Nathan McCullum do it. It may help slow down the Aussie openers and possibly pick up early wickets. Let us see what happens tomorrow….
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