Graeme Smith picks India as World Cup favourites
Graeme Smith, the South African Captain has picked India as the World Cup 2011 favourites in the ICC Cricket World Radio Show, on Friday.
“http://www.senore.com/Cricket/India-c750 goes into the World Cup as favourites,” Smith stated.
He said that India is a settled side and they will be the team to watch out for in the World Cup that is scheduled to begin from the 19th of February in the sub-continent with India, http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Bangladesh-c747 sharing the hosting rights.
Smith believes that the home team will be aware of the region’s conditions and the pitch situation.
“I think the home teams will be right up there when it comes to the ICC Cricket World Cup,” Smith stated before adding that other teams need to break through them.
He said that the spin-friendly decks of the sub-continent can be tricky and the home teams will know best how to interpret them. He said that the home teams will be “crafty knowing” about reading the conditions.
Smith recently led his side in a One Day series victory against MS Dhoni’s side in http://www.senore.com/Cricket/South-Africa-c757, after being thrashed to two defeats in a row. However, the Proteas put up a hard-fought contest and crawled back from a 2-1 deficit to seal the victory in the
last two matches at Port Elizabeth and Centurion.
The last game in the five-match series, especially showed the threatening late-order of India’s batting line-up with Yusuf Pathan smashing 105 runs off just 70 balls. The Proteas were sure of the win when India was restricted to 119 for the loss of eight
wickets as they were chasing 269 for victory, but Pathan’s batting power gave a struggling time to the Proteas’ bowling attack.
South Africa’s fast bowler http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Dale-c52110 Steyn also echoed India’s potential in the World Cup saying that the recently concluded series was “tough all the way through” and the lesson learnt from this series will help his side work hard in the sub-continent. He believed
that even though his side put up a well-fought contest in the One Day series; India will be tougher on their own turf.
However, the 29-year-old South African skipper said that in his opinion there are many contenders for the coveted Cup.
“I think there are five or six teams that could win this World Cup,” adding that the potential victors would make the much awaited tournament a “very exciting one.”
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