South Africa’s destiny is not in their control

Prior to the start of the ICC World Twenty20 I noted that England would be one of the form teams in the tournament, and boy have they delivered. England beat the Proteas in a warm up match, and then went on to beat Ireland, they lost to the West Indies on the Duckworth-Lewis method after posting 191 runs in their innings.

In the Super Eights stage England beat Pakistan and more significantly for us they beat the Proteas by 39 runs in Barbados. England have secured their place in the semi-final and will most probably play Sri Lanka. This leaves South Africa and New Zealand fighting it out for the other semi-final position in group E.

Currently New Zealand are in second place and have a better net run rate, by 0.350. South Africa will play Pakistan on Monday 10^th May, it’s a must win game. Not only will we need to beat Pakistan, we’ll have to do it convincingly. If New Zealand beat England in a game that will be played directly after the Proteas game, then it will come down to net run rate. We really need England to beat New Zealand.

The Proteas have played some poor cricket in this ICC World Twenty20, we’ve lost to India and England and have only beaten Afganistan. We’re going to have to pick up our game in a big way if we are to stand any chance of reaching the semi-finals.

At the moment, the form books will have the Australians up against England in the final.