India and South Africa evenly matched
India and South Africa are all set to clash against each other in the five-match ODI series starting at Durban tomorrow. http://www.senore.com/Cricket/India-c750 has the winning momentum, going into the match with a Twenty20 win.
After a drawn Test series, both teams played a lone Twenty20 match which featured the last appearance of the star South African fast bowler http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Makhaya-Ntini-c73953. Although India won the match, they will face stiff competition in the ODI’s. The home team will be
without their veteran all-rounder Jacques Kallis. The star player sustained an injury during the last Test match against India where he scored centuries in both innings. He will be out of action for at-least two ODI’s. Apart from Kallis, the Proteas can rely
on some other world-class players. They have their run-machine Hashim Amla who opens the innings for them and has been scoring a lot of runs in ODI’s and Tests. Although Amla missed out on an opportunity to justify his selection in the Twenty20 format, he
definitely fits in the ODI squad with over 1000 runs in the T20 format, last year.
There are also some other prolific players like http://www.senore.com/Cricket/JP-Duminy-c1742 in the squad who can change the course of the match very quickly. The Proteas have a very good mix of youth and experience in their squad. The highlight of their squad are the two
leg-spinners, http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Faf-du-Plessis-c1427. Spinners have been a rarity in South Africa and especially leg-spin bowlers are a very rare species in the region. Tahir has also been named in the preliminary World Cup squad and he is very likely to be a part
of the final 15.
However, the Indian team plays spin very well and this may be a negative factor for both these spinners. India will be missing their flamboyant opening batsman http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Virender-Sehwag-c95429 in the ODI’s. Sehwag injured his shoulder in the last Test match and the team
management decided to rest him for the one day series so that he gets fit in time for the World Cup.
India has experimented with plenty of youngsters on this tour and they will continue to experiment in the one-days as well. Players like http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Ravichandran-Ashwin-c84208 will be looking forward to impress the selectors. The Indians also
have their experienced players Zaheer Khan, Yuvraj Singh and captain http://www.senore.com/Cricket/MS-Dhoni-c2028. All these competitors will be hoping to get some runs before the World Cup and head to the Mega event with confidence.
India doesn’t have a very good record playing in http://www.senore.com/Cricket/South-Africa-c757 but the team is looking forward to improve on that. The team reached the final in the 2003 World Cup which was played in this region. Playing South Africa in their home conditions is not an easy
task but India does have the potential to match the Proteas. However, the home team will be looking forward to win the ODI series to shift the winning momentum on their side as they haven’t won anything after the victory in the opening Test match at Durban.
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