ICC Champions Trophy 2017, India vs South Africa – key player battles
India take on South Africa in a crunch encounter in the ICC Champions Trophy 2017. The winner of the game gets entry into the semi-finals while the loser will get eliminated from the tournament. The match at The Oval will feature some of the top players in action. The likes of Virat Kohli, AB de Villiers have dazzled the cricketing world with their brilliant performances and this encounter promises to be breath-taking. Ahead of the match, here are some of the player clashes between the two teams.
Rohit Sharma v Imran Tahir
This will be an exciting affair as both of the players are having a dream run in the Champions Trophy so far. While Sharma missed out on centuries in both the games with scores of 91 and 78 to show for, Tahir jointly leads the bowling list for his side with four wickets. Sharma’s weakness to spin bowling had been exposed in the IPL, with the Mumbai Indians captain falling to spinners on eight occasions out of the 13 times he was dismissed.
shikhar Dhawan v Morne Morkel
The southpaw usually likes to go after the bowlers right from the start, but of late seems to have changed his batting style a bit and plays according to the conditions. While in the IPL he and skipper David Warner switched roles between taking charge and playing the anchoring role, for India as well, Dhawan has paced his innings well in both the matches. However, he’ll face a much more polished pace attack and it won’t be easy to just stand and deliver.
Ravindra Jadeja v AB de Villiers
The South African skipper is going through a really poor period and it’s affecting his side as the middle order isn’t delivering as much as it should have. The IPL hadn’t turned out to be a good tournament for him as well and de Villiers will hope to finally get the monkey off his back but will have to check his shots against Ravindra Jadeja, who has the ability to turn the ball away from him.
Faf du Plessis v Bhuvneshwar Kumar
This will be another exciting contest to watch as Kumar has the ability to swing the ball both ways while darting one back in from outside the off-stump. Du Plessis has already twice been dismissed by seam bowlers in the Champions Trophy and he has to be extremely cautious while playing Kumar on Sunday.
Virat Kohli v Kagiso Rabada
Kohli had played an unbeaten knock of 81 against Pakistan last Sunday but had to head back on a duck against Sri Lanka in the last game. Against South Africa, regardless of whether Rohit Sharma and Shikhar Dhawan provides them another classic start upfront, Kohli, will have to deliver. It may not be easy facing the Proteas bowling attack in the English conditions but India will have to score big as no score seems enough against the famed South African batting line-up.
