By Mickey Arthur
I said before the tournament that eight teams had at least one or two players with the ability to win a game single-handedly. But to win a tournament you need more than one no player can win five or six games in a row by himself. Four teams have three or four game-breakers but, perhaps, only India and South Africa have seven or eight.
If Gibbs, Smith and Kallis all fail, then we have De Villiers, Duminy, Morkel and Boucher. Steyn, Botha and Parnell are also potential match winners with the ball. And whos to say Roelof van der Merwe isnt, as well?
India have just as many game-breakers in their squad and, like South Africa, that allows the top order batsmen to play with total freedom and confidence because they know and believe in the ability of the men behind them. India have just as many batsmen capable of destroying an attack.
It is the same with the bowlers Zaheer and Dale Steyn can lead the attack with fearless aggression, aiming to take wickets with the confidence that they have quality seamers and spinners behind them
But to win a T20 tournament, you also need to have the ability to assess conditions and decide what is a par score. And luck. Nobody wins anything without a bit of luck going their way.
As far as Im concerned however, we have a happy, relaxed, smiling and extremely well prepared squad. Thats all I can ask for.
Englands humiliation by Holland in the opening game did us a great favour. I didnt have the slightest doubt about the teams attitude or approach before our first gamre against Scotland, but there was a distinct increase in intensity when they all realised that shock upsets really could happen. The ruthless demolition of Scotland on Sunday was partly a reaction to that!
We now appear to be just about everybodys favourites to win very marginally ahead of India and we take that as a major compliment. I dont understand why some teams try to fight off the favourites label. Its just a label, after all.
I watched Pakistans game against England with a mixture of shock and disbelief. The home side bounced back in stunning fashion from their Dutch embarrassment but Pakistan were dreadful. Sure, sometimes things dont go your way and you lose but there was no way Pakistan should have lost so badly.
Did they not realise what they were doing to themselves by scoring so slowly? If they win their final game against Holland then the group will be decided on net run rate with all three teams having won and lost a game.
Being thrashed by 48 runs has put Pakistan in the dreadful position of having to thrash Holland by an even greater margin. Surely they could have reduced the margin of defeat! There appeared to be a catastrophic lack of thinking and planning.
HAWKEYE COMMUNICATIONS
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