Team Preview: South Africa

by Saurabh Somani



Many feel South Africa were robbed of a rightful semi-final berth in the inaugural edition. To recap, they played five matches and won four of them. Their only loss came against India, but it was enough to deprive them of a semi-final spot on net run-rate. Ironically, they ended the tournament with a better winning percentage than any other team, including India. With a history littered with so-near-yet-so-far stories, South Africa will be hoping that their recent resurgence continues into this World Cup too.

Strenghts: The team as a whole has been in terrific form recently, and the players' confidence will be very high. Their winning spree has also inculcated a self-belief and a 'can do' attitude in the side. Their team seems to blend its different parts seamlessly together, living out the maxim 'the whole is greater than the sum of the parts'. Their side is packed with all-rounders - some of them of exceptional quality, some of the bits-and-pieces variety - but all effective in their own domains. So they have Kallis to play anchor and support bowler, Albie Morkel for explosive finishes and flexible bowling, van der Merwe for lower order support and spin, Ontong for bits-and-pieces batting and bowling and Boucher as an excellent wicket-keeper batsman. To top it all, JP Duminy has been coming on nicely as a bowler and Botha has shown that he's no rabbit with bat in hand.

Weaknesses: They have a reputation for 'losing it' in the big moments, and choking during big matches. Even though the current side has not displayed that tendency so far, their history is littered with matches where even some of their greatest players failed to seize the day that counted.

Their most potent bowler is Dale Steyn, and although nobody will be taking him lightly, he is yet to prove as effective in Twenty20 cricket as he has been in Test matches and ODIs. Every team that has serious ambitions of lifting the trophy, will look to have in its ranks at least one bowler who can guarantee four spotless overs alongwith being a wicket-taking option. India have Zaheer Khan, Sri Lanka have Malinga, Australia have Brett Lee, Pakistan have Sohail Tanveer - but Steyn, though he has undoubted class, hasn't yet developped into that kind of a T20 bowler.

Opportunities: Their growing stature in world cricket was slightly dented with their home series loss to Australia, and they were brought rudely back to earth after the heady Australian tour. This is the perfect opportunity to get back some of the lost lustre. Some of the young guns have not yet established themselves as certainties in the squad and this could be the stepping stone they want. A good performance here will almost certainly guarantee that they come into the selectors' radar for ODIs at the very least.

Also some of the older generation would be out to prove that their performances in the IPL were not a fluke or a result of having the advantage of playing in familiar conditions - but that they genuinely still have it in them to play the shortest format of the game.

Threats: Their captain has been out of form. with any team, that is a psychological burden, but even more so with South Africa, because throughout their rise to the top, the team has been forged in Graeme Smith's image. He was also helped by the fact that he was in the batting 'zone' for most of that period. Now with the captain faltering, the team could end up looking a little lost. Apart from that the team looks pretty solid with no visible cracks

X Factor: AB de Villiers, Albie Morkel

Albie has not been in the best of form in the IPL, but right before that he tormented the Aussies with some game-changing innings. The thing with a player like him is, even when he's not quite middling the ball, he's capable of hitting a couple out of the park. In a format where one good over can often make the difference between victory and defeat, South Africa will feel they always have a chance as long as he's still there.

AB de Villiers is currently enjoying the sort of form that he would look back on in his old age with misty-eyed memories. He's been consistenly delivering the goods for whichever team he's played for - and has some stunning numbers to his name this season. An average of 60.30 in Test matches, an average of 55.90 at a strike rate of 96.04 in ODIs, and an average of 51.67 at a strike rate of 131.00 in the just concluded IPL. When AB bats these days, it seems as if he's wielding a bat made exclusively of the middle, with no edges.

Quotable Quotes: "We have an exciting squad with pace, swing and spin in the bowling department and plenty of depth to our batting. In terms of talent, flair and confidence this is the strongest Proteas' team that I have captained" - Graeme Smith

The Squad: Graeme Smith (c) ,Johan Botha (vc), Yusuf Abdulla, Mark Boucher (wk), AB de Villiers, Jean-Paul Duminy, Herschelle Gibbs, Jacques Kallis, Albie Morkel, Morne Morkel, Justin Ontong, Wayne Parnell, Robin Peterson, Dale Steyn, Roelof van der Merwe