Watch South Africa Vs England Live World Cup T20 2010

South Africa Vs England 6th Match Super 8s Twenty20 World Cup 2010 8 May Live

Saturday, 08 May 2010

			South Africa Vs England
Venue :6th Match Super 8s Group E, Kensington Oval, Bridgetown, Barbados Live action starts from: 17:30 GMT (23:00 IST) T20 ICC Twenty20 World Cup 2010 Match

The 6th game of the Super Eight stage will see England play South Africa at Bridgetown in Barbados. Both sides had won their opening encounter and this means that the team winning this game will be almost sure to go through to the next round, that is the semi-finals, whereas the team losing this encounter will need to restart all over again and win the last match in order to have any chance of making it through to the next round.

England did not have a great first round of the tournament, having lost to West Indies in the first game and then, going on to almost lose another one before the rains prevented any play and sending them through to the next round with a better net run-rate than Ireland.

However, their game against Pakistan was a revelation as they batted and bowled much better than their opposition. They could have been hit around for too many runs by the Pakistan batsmen, but the spinners held their nerves and bowled beautifully at an opposition which loves to play spin bowling.

The pitch at Barbados was such that the batsmen did struggle to come to grips with it, but the good thing was that Kevin Pietersen batted on through the innings. He did not flinch even he got beaten, and almost took that pull stroke out of his armoury to which he had got out in both the earlier games in the tournament.

This means that when England take on the traditional foes South Africa, the contest will be an even one.

South Africa had, rather unsurprisingly, sent out Loots Bosman for the previous game and called in Herschelle Gibbs, and Gibbs contributed, both, with the bat and in the field. He scored a 24-ball 30 that took his side through the middle overs and then held three smart catches to push the Kiwis back in that game.

However, for this game, South Africa will know that they are up against an opposition who had, only late last year, held them to a 1-1 draw in a T20I series. Both the games were high-scoring and that is where the English batsmen had been able to score, unlike this game which may not be high-scoring. Instead, this one could be a grind, and one can expect the team that is able to bat through the initial phase without losing too many wickets to be able to do much better.

Watch Pakistan Vs New Zealand Live T20 World Cup Match

Pakistan Vs New Zealand 5th Match Super 8s Twenty20 World Cup 2010 8 May Live

			Pakistan Vs South Africa
Venue :9th Match Super 8s Group E, Beausejour Stadium, Gros Islet, St Lucia Live action starts from: 13:30 GMT (19:00 IST) T20 ICC Twenty20 World Cup 2010 Match

New Zealand will play Pakistan in what will be the fifth game of the Super Eight stage of the ICC World T20. This will also be the match between the two sides which had lost their opening games of the Super Eights stage; New Zealand were put down by South Africa, whereas Pakistan lost to England.

Hence, the winner of the game will still have a chance to qualify for the next round, whereas the losing team will almost be knocked out of the tournament, unless there is a miracle.

Pakistan's batting continues to haunt them in the tournament despite that one innings against Bangladesh. Against an attack which is strong enough, the side has struggled to make it count, and this has been witnessed in two games now. There is a sense of vulnerability or brittleness in the batting and that has probably been caused by lack of the very big hitters of the ball.

Even against England, the side started out well, but all of a sudden one wicket fell and this was followed by a line of wickets before a nervous-looking Shahid Afridi was run-out. It continues to be a surprise to see that Afridi bats so high up the order and it will make sense for him to come down lower in the batting, thereby allowing some of the more talented batsmen to ensure that they get a start at the top of the order.

The bowling did its best, but nothing much seemed to have come out of it as the side had already scored far too less.

For New Zealand, it was a problem of conceding far too many runs on a difficult pitch. The track was a 150 or thereabouts wicket, but with the Kiwis not possessing anyone with the pace of Dale Steyn and with Shane Bond, not exactly in the best of forms, the opposition could run away with 170 on the board in the slog overs.

The Kiwis may have to try to get in Kyle Mills, something that was a surprise that they did not get him in the side for the South Africa game. His height and ability to bowl the different lengths at different times in the game will go on to augur well for the side.

Between the two teams, one gets the sense that the side that bowls first will have an advantage given that this is a morning match.