Ground Reality: Home to the Highveld Lions, Wanderers, nicknamed 'The Bullring', played host to many a memorable match and one such was the epic encounter between Australia and South Africa where the Proteas chased down a colossal target of 434 runs set by the Kangaroos. The Wanderers also played host to the 2007 T20 World Cup final as well as the IPL finals where the Deccan Chargers beat the Royal Challengers.
The Pitch: The pitch at the Wanderers is a typical South African wicket providing assistance to the seamers. The current edition of the Champions Trophy has seen 5 matches played here of which 4 have been low scoring encounters.
Temperatures: Min - 13C Max - 23C | Conditions: Mostly Cloudy
India: 'Down and almost out' - This is India's story in the Champions Trophy as they pray for Pakistan's victory against Australia. Coming into the Champions Trophy, India were touted as one of the favourites along with South Africa, but contrary to those speculations, Pakistan beating Australia and India defeating West Indies by a huge margin is the only possible route for India to qualify to the semi-finals and not follow the South African way. Their bowling performance against the Aussies was slightly better when compared to the performance against Pakistan. Ashish Nehra and Praveen Kumar performed well with the new ball and Amith Mishra certainly justified Dhoni's decision to pick him for the match. However, Ishant Sharma once again showed that he was a bowler short of confidence with his display of wayward bowling, and Harbhajan went for 6 runs an over during his spell. India never got a chance to bat against the Aussies with the match being washed out during the Australian innings. As mentioned earlier, India's hope now rest on Pakistan beating Australia.
No comments:
Post a Comment