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Australia will look to wrap up their place in the World T20 2012 semi-finals when they take on South Africa in a Super Eights game in Colombo. We’ll have live scores and commentary from 8.00pm AEST.
If Australia were a couple of steps ahead of Ireland and West Indies in their league stage games, they annihilated India in the previous Super Eights match.
First, the Australian bowling led by Pat Cummins and Mitchell Starc kept India down to a 140ish score.
They were then aided by some poor Indian bowling and alleged problems with gripping the ball and cantered to the target in 15 overs.
And for the third time in row, it was Shane Watson who got them home with a fine all-round performance. Three wickets at crucial times and a six-laden innings of 72 shut the Indians out.
The only problem for Australia then? Their middle-order has been untested and under-cooked.
This is a crucial game in that while a win should take them to the semi-final, an Australian loss will also make their last game against Pakistan a must-win.
Hence, how the Australian middle-order manages to come good on a surface which could be less than ideal for batting in an afternoon game, will make for an interesting play.
South Africa, their opponents for today’s game, will probably come in with a bit of regret. They should have closed out their opening Super Eights match against Pakistan.
On a track that turned square from start, South Africa seemed to have done well to push Pakistan to a corner in their chase of 133. At 7/76, Pakistan looked down and out.
Then a few poor captaincy calls like keeping off-spinner Johan Botha away – with figures of 1/10 in 2 – cost them the game.
The two Umars, Gul and Akmal, went berserk and unfortunately for South Africa, none of it went to hand.
AB de Villiers, the skipper, admitted that it was his mistakes that had lost the match for South Africa but the big question now is whether he can rectify them enough to beat a very strong Australian line-up.
Dale Steyn’s foot injury will be a concern but other than that the South African side should remain the same. Also expect de Villiers to bat at least a spot higher than he did in their Pakistan game.
Australia haven’t played a day game on this track since their first one and will need to adjust to the conditions.
The track does flatten out in the evening but baked under the Colombo sun, it shows tendency of helping the slower bowlers much more.
Action begins 8.00pm AEST and we will bring you the live ball-by-ball coverage of the match from the commencement.
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