Inspired India take on South Africa in CT opener

Cardiff, June 5: Drawn in what is being dubbed as the Group of Death, India will look to carry forward the form they exhibited in the tournament’s warm-up games as they lock horns with South Africa in the Champions Trophy opener, which will be their first match outside the sub-continent in 15 months.
With every game a virtual shootout, both the former winners will be eager to make a head start in the tournament which is being held for the last time.
As World Cup champions, India will have more than reputation to defend in the 50-over format contest. They have not played a limited over international outside the sub-continent in the last 15 months but the two big wins in their practice matches against Sri Lanka in Birmingham and Australia in Cardiff will give the Indian team management a fair idea of the conditions to confront.
India will also look to put behind them the recent spot-fixing scandal surrounding the IPL.
Although history never counts in international cricket, India have a good record against South Africa in the Champions Trophy. India lead 2-0 in head-to-head having won by 95 runs at Nairobi’s Gymkhana ground on October 13, 2000 and by 10 runs at Colombo’s Premadasa Stadium on September 25, 2002.
With two out of the four battle-hardened teams qualifying for the semifinals, all matches in group B are expected to be closely-fought affairs.
Except Pakistan, India, South Africa and the West Indies have won the Champions Trophy at least once each and hence more than just pride will be at stake in the last edition of the tournament that began as the Mini World Cup in Dhaka in 1998.
South Africa also arrive with a lot of reputation to protect. They are the world’s No. 1 Test team but their ODI fortunes have been scratchy and it showed during the one-off warm-up game they played against a talented Pakistani attack on Monday.
At The Oval, South Africa lost by six wickets and the defeat exposed the chinks in a batting line-up without two solid customers, Jacques Kallis and Graeme Smith.
Most captains have pooh-poohed their defeats in the practice games. The 15-a-side, bat and field 11 hybrid concept may be good for practice but considerably waters down the competitive edge of a real contest.
South African skipper AB De Villiers dismissed the Oval defeat saying: “It’s not about the result, it’s about what you get out of it. I am sure each guy will stand up when the time is right.”
That time will come tomorrow and India will be the first big hurdle. Fresh from the T20 Indian Premier League, most Indian players are quickly trying to adjust to the 50-over variety. It’s been a test for application and temperament and if the results in the two warm-up games are anything to go by, the feedback is mixed.
Squads (from):
India: Mahendra Singh Dhoni (capt), Ravichandran Ashwin, Shikhar Dhawan, Ravindra Jadeja, Dinesh Karthik, Virat Kohli, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Amit Mishra, Irfan Pathan, Suresh Raina, Ishant Sharma, Rohit Sharma, Murali Vijay, Vinay Kumar, Umesh Yadav
South Africa: AB de Villiers (capt), Hashim Amla, Farhaan Behardien, Jean-Paul Duminy, Faf du Plessis, Colin Ingram, Rory Kleinveldt, Ryan McLaren, David Miller, Morne Morkel, Alviro Petersen, Robin Peterson, Aaron Phangiso, Dale Steyn, Lonwabo Tsotsobe.(PTI)

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