By Suneer Chowdhary
Ireland will be up against a mountain when they look for an outside chance of qualifying for the World Cup quarter-final by winning their game against South Africa at the Eden Gardens in Kolkata. South Africa need one win from their remaining two games – this and against Bangladesh – but a loss to either sides will hardly be acceptable.
Published: Mar 14, 2011, 06:52 PM (IST)
Edited: Mar 14, 2011, 06:52 PM (IST)
Morne Morkel
By Suneer Chowdhary
Kolkata: Mar 15, 2011
Ireland will be up against a mountain when they look for an outside chance of qualifying for the World Cup quarter-final by winning their game against South Africa at the Eden Gardens in Kolkata. South Africa need one win from their remaining two games – this and against Bangladesh – but a loss to either sides will hardly be acceptable.
On the other hand, two wins will push them to the top of the points table in Group B. The feel-good factor aside, it is a question-mark whether that will help the side in any other way in the quarter-final.South Africa had started the tournament on a note that made them the cynosure of the experts’ eyes; winning two in a row with consummate ease. Then, by bowling England out for 171, they seemed to have made in three in three before an inexplicable collapse saw them lose the game.
The win against India would have, thus, given them self-belief that could have flagged a tad after the English-loss. Despite what one has to say about the Indian bowling, there is no doubting that they had managed to silence the 40,000 odd spectators in the stands in that pressure game with a combination of their bowling and batting.The South African middle-order has often been termed weak ever since they decided to do away with a specialist batsman in Colin Ingram and got in bits and pieces cricketers in Faff du Plessis and Robin Peterson.
However, if one were to look into South Africa’s history of ODI cricket, they have always enjoyed the likes of the McMillans, the Pollocks, the Kluseners, the Bojes and more recently, the Albie Morkels. All these players could bat and bowl depending on the situation and bail the side out of trouble, something that both du Plessis and Peterson did against India. It may be a matter of affording them more chances to allow them to get going at the international level and a game like the one against Ireland will be useful.Ireland have been decent in fits and starts.
The bowling against Bangladesh, the second part of their batting against England, the initial bowling in the India game and the batting in the middle overs against West Indies are those periods of play where they can pat themselves on the back. On the other hand, there have been other times when the quality has dropped dramatically, as one would expect from an inexperienced side like theirs.On the two previous occasions that Ireland have played South Africa they have not had a chance.
Both the games came in 2007 when the Irish side was taking its first few steps at the international level. Even now, Ireland is still wet behind their ears, but have a tad more experience of playing the top sides. Whether they have the ammo to get the better of the powerful South Africans is a different issue.One hopes that the Ireland captain William Porterfield will channelize his anger at the Gary Wilson dismissal in the rightful manner in this game. By leading from the front with a plethora of bottle against Steyn and co.!
Teams
South Africa (Probable): Graeme Smith (c), Hashim Amla, Jaques Kallis, AB de Villiers, JP Duminy, Morne van Wyk (wk), Faf du Plessis, Johan Botha, Robin Peterson, Dale Steyn, Morne Morkel.
Ireland (Probable): William Porterfield (c), Paul Stirling, Ed Joyce, Niall O’Brien (wk), Gary Wilson, Kevin O’Brien, Alex Cusack, John Mooney, Trent Johnston, George Dockrell, Boyd Rankin.
Umpires: Kumar Dharmasena (Sri Lanka) and Billy Doctrove (West Indies).
Time: 14:30 local (09.00 GMT).
(Jamie Alter is a freelance cricket writer, having worked at ESPNcricinfo and All Sports Magazine. His first book, The History of World Cup Cricket, is out now. His twitter feed is @jamie_alter)
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