ICC World Twenty20: Why South Africa should win

This time around I’m armed with some facts and figures to backup South Africa.

The recent success of the Proteas has given the team a great deal of momentum; we’ve had historic test and ODI victories in England, India and Australia.

In addition to those recent heroics South Africa recently hosted IPL2 with many South African players included in the tournament. The Batsmen have performed extremely well in the IPL, below are some stats from the top performing South African Batsmen:



If you consider that the top three runs scores in the IPL were Mathew Hayden, Adam Gilchrist and AB de Villiers then you start to get a sense that SA are up there as both Hayden and Gilchrist will watch the ICC World Twenty20 from their living rooms. Add Herschell Gibbs and JP Duminy to the mix and you have to back the Proteas.

We’ve come to accept that spin bowling plays a major role in the Twenty20 game;
South Africa has recently developed some class spin bowlers, with the likes of Johan Botha, Roelof van der Merwe and Robbie Peterson. If the Proteas are to compete for the title these guys are going to have to perform. The one are of concern is our pace attack in this version of the game, Dale Steyn hasn’t done much, Albie Morkel didn’t do well in the IPL, and Wayne Parnell our left are quick needs time to mature.

Having said all that Twenty20 cricket is unpredictable, you need to get into the top four and hope for the best from there.
Proteas’ Standard Bank Pro20 International squad:

Graeme Smith , Johan Botha, Yusuf Abdulla, Mark Boucher, AB de Villiers, JP Duminy, Herschelle Gibbs , Jacques, Albie Morkel, Morne Morkel (, Justin Ontong, Wayne Parnell, Robbie Peterson, Dale Steyn, Roelof van der Merwe.