World Cup: India and South Africa face off in a mouth-watering clash

Piyush Chawla and Harbhajan Singh during a practice

“It’s clobberin’ time,” is how ‘The Thing’, a giant superhero of the Fantastic Four comic series, cries before taking on his enemies.

The stage is all set for the biggest first round battle of the World Cup. Giants India and South Africa will vie for superiority on a flat track. And yes, the tickets have been sold out for the Saturday night thriller at the VCA Stadium.

Both teams want to overpower each other and flex their muscles. India may have had a few close shaves, but you simply can’t write off this batting line-up. South Africa continue to be called chokers, but nobody can question their talent and ability to beat the best on their day.

The mind games began on Friday. Graeme Smith kept the Indians — and the media — guessing over the fitness status of their new star, leg-spinner Imran Tahir. Mahendra Singh Dhoni, too, didn’t spell out whether he would persist with leggie Piyush Chawla or let off-spinner R Ashwin make his World Cup debut.

India have all but booked a place in the last eight, but Dhoni has more than one issue to deal with. The great batting line-up posted huge totals against Bangladesh and England before crawling to victories against minnows Ireland and The Netherlands. Call it complacency or over-confidence or whatever you want, but the batters need to buck up.

Seasoned off-spinner Harbhajan Singh is struggling to pick up wickets, but Dhoni is happy that his lead spinner is successfully stemming the flow of runs. This, in turn, allows Yuvraj Singh to pick up wickets, Dhoni reasons. Who is going to partner Harbhajan this time after Chawla’s below-par performances in the last two matches? Will it be Ashwin — who is mentally fit and doesn’t need match practice — or a third seamer?

Dhoni wants his boys to win on Saturday so that they can carry the winning momentum into the next stage. And for that, the star batting line-up will have to fire on all cylinders.

On the other hand, Smith has a tough job at hand. First, his team will have to shed the ‘chokers’ tag. The South Africans are also struggling to score runs. Hashim Amla is getting starts but that’s about it. Smith, however, is happy with his bowling attack, led by Dale Steyn. They have performed consistently and if Tahir plays, it will be a big boost for them. Steyn would be licking his lips to bowl on a track where he took 10 wickets in a Test last year.