Mighty Indians begin their campaign while Proteas search for a win…

Cricket World Cup, international cricket championship held at four year intervals that is the premier contest in One-Day cricket and one of the most watched sporting events in the world.

The 2019 ICC Cricket world cup is the 12th edition hosted in England.

This blog is a preview of INDIA VS SOUTH AFRICA match on the 5th of June.

South Africa has started their World Cup campaign with worst start in the last eight World Cups. They have lost their first two matches against England and bangladesh respectively. In both the matches the proteas were given the task to chase in which they were not up to.

In the first and the opening match against England the proteas were given the task to chase a fighting total of 312 includign three decent fifties by Jason Roy, Joe Root, and Eoin Morgan. When the English middle order could not provide much of the expectation Ben stokes played a crucial knock of 89 runs of just 79 balls at the tail end of the innings. The South African bowlers were a bit expensive but took wickets throughout the innings. Lungi Ngidi took 3 wickets, with Imran Tahir and Kagiso Rabada taking 2 wickets each.

The South Africans were not able to cope with total England had posted with only Quinton De Kock and Rassie van der Dussen scoring fifties. The top order and the lower order did not provide much runs while Ben Stokes heroics continued by taking 2 wickets and a magnificient catch. Jofra Archer also took 3 wickets which is a sign of making of legendary player.

South Africa had their second match against Bangladesh the underdogs with whom no one had any kind of expectation. Batting first they got a good start with Shakib al Hasan and Mushfiqur Rahim both scoring 70+ scores and working through the middle order helping Bangladesh to post a total of 330 runs. The end of the innings was handled by Mahmudullah who scored an aggresive knock of 46 runs from 33 balls.

This was a big task for the South African batting attack to achieve positively. They gave a good fight with almost every batsman till No.6 scoring 30+ scores including 1 quick half century by their captain Faf du Plessis and 3 40+ scores. This was not enough to chase a target of 331 runs and the proteas lost to Bnagladesh by 21 runs.

Now, coming to the Indian side which has the most expectations after the hosts England had a dissapointing start in their first warm-up match against New Zealand but payed back in their next match against Bangladesh by scoring 359 runs including the heroic centuries of K L Rahul and MS Dhoni at a stage when India were 3 wickets down in the first ten overs. Well, defending this total was an easy task for the Indian bowling attack.

Now, coming to the rest days the Indian team got before their campaign started were fun as they headed for a game of Paintball.co with the team.

INJURIES

Two days back during a practice session Virat Kohli hurt his right thumb but recovered fast and is fit to play tomorrow’s game. Kedar Jadhav is also back from injury and might get a chance in the team instead of KL Rahul despite his heroics against the Bangladesh team and getting fit perfectly at the No. 4 spot which India is most concerned about.

Pitches in England are hard and have good bounce which can make the Indian pacers to play the key role tomorrow. Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Jasprit Bumrah in the squad with Hardik Pandya the sight looks good but will India play with three spinners or play with two for bringing in the experienced Mohammed Shami?

This is an unawnsered question by the Indian unit. The bowlers will be picked as per the pitch conditions. This is it for our preview. I will be posting more blog previews of the matches the Indian team plays in this ICC CRICKET WORLD CUP.