Ind v SA ICC Cricket World Cup 2011 Preview: Turbulence too Tough to Pick Up

This is not a do-or-die match for India or South Africa. However, given some of the more sedate matches in the ICC Cricket World Cup 2011 and in a follow up the dramatic India England tie, the India versus South Africa is being pitched as the mother of all battles.

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Had Imran Tahir been completely fit, it would have been interesting to see if the South African captain, Graeme Smith, would have still included him in the league match against India. Given that Tahir has been the star of the tournament, whether South Africa would have wanted to expose their trump card is now a mystery because the spinner has been advised a ten day rest for a fractured thumb and is unlikely to play since this is not a life and death situation for the team, although they would like to erase the painful memory of the loss to England, which should not have happened in the first place.

For India, South Africa represent another stepping stone in getting their World Cup tuning right. While their batting has been in reasonably good shape, it is their bowling that continues to be mind boggling. Piyush Chawla continues to be persisted with while Ravichandran Ashwin has not been given a chance.

For Mahendra Singh Dhoni, there are no options as far as the fast bowling department is concerned because Zaheer Khan is the only outstanding performer with Munaf Patel for back up. All expectations about Ashish Nehra now lie under a heap of debris of criticism while Sreesanth is lost at the moment.

In that sense, while it makes sense to build up this contest as a major head on collision, both teams will be looking at this match, not as a revenge clash of sorts, but rather with an eye to tweaking their plans and testing waters before the quarterfinal stage.

For South Africa, it will mean getting their fast bowlers to pick up wickets early as opposed to the spinners, including Johan Botha who did well before being dropped. But it will be more about their batting because the rustiness was exposed against England with Hashim Amla and AB de Villiers in prime form.

With so many things to work out, it would be hard to imagine either team getting too stuck up on the other without worrying about their own fair share of concerns to address before realistically attempting to lift the ICC Cricket World Cup trophy.