Feb. 14: The match may have be been accorded unofficial status. But one can surely expect the sparks to fly when two of the perennial World Cup favourites, the Australians and South Africa XI face off in a warm-up encounter at the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium here on Tuesday.
Even though, the result will have no real meaning, both teams would be out to patch up the chinks in their armour, in their final match before the big bash. Off the two, the Australians will be the worried lot as their batsmen struggled against the Indian spinners while chasing a small total.
It may be good news for the Australians that like them, the Proteas too rely heavily on their pace battery, which is to the Aussies’ liking. South African pacers Dale Steyn, Morne Morkel and Luwambo Tsotsobe are more than a match for the Australian pacers.
But considering that Australia have been drawn in Group A along with two other Asian teams — Pakistan and Sri Lanka — who have potent spin attacks, this may not be the right kind of practice that Ricky Ponting’s men would be looking forward to.
On the other hand, the Proteas will look forward to give more practice to their batsmen after they registered an eight-wicket win against the Zims. All their top three batsmen got runs during the encounter against their African neighbours.
While the Australian batsmen, barring Ponting faltered, their pacers warmed up in impressive fashion.