India has marginal edge

Hyderabad: Having won all their matches in the league stages and reclaimed the top ranking in the latest ICC T20 rankings, the Men in Blue will be in full flow when they take on the South Africans in the second semifinal at Mirpur on Friday.

Despite that, the chances of the Proteas cannot be ruled out has they have match winners like Dale Steyn and A B de Villiers in their ranks. All said and done, the key to the outcome will possibly with the toss.

Dew has been a huge worry for the teams defending a total. The last three matches of the group stages show otherwise, but the team that wins the toss will certainly look to chase.

The Indian team already got their bit of surprise before the match with a potential knee injury to Yuvraj, who looked to be getting into some form with a half-century in the previous game. The team management had cleared him for the practice session on Thursday, but his fitness for the semifinal still hangs in the balance.

Another thing that is a potential threat to Team India is Imran Tahir. He has been brilliant with the ball and has wickets to show for that. The onus would be on Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma, both good players of spin, to play out his four-over spell.

Dale Steyn, up front is the biggest threat to the most formidable of batting line-ups. The South Africans will heavily rely on his bowling despite the spinning conditions.

The big gamble, however, will be picking up the opening pair. Shikhar Dhawan has been completely out of touch. He hasn’t been able to give the starts that are expected of him. The other option is Ajinkya Rahane, who was preferred over the big-hitter in the previous match. However, given the heavy stakes in the semifinals, the southpaw is likely to be recalled into the playing eleven.

On current form, India begin favourites. However, a Twenty20 game can change in a matter of three overs as Pakistan captain Mohammed Hafeez realised it the hard way.

India have so far convincingly crushed some of the teams such as Australia, Pakistan and Bangladesh while registering a comfortable win against defending champions West Indies.

South Africa, on the other hand, has recorded some close victories against New Zealand, the Netherlands and England in their last three games.

India would like to move on from their forgettable first two-and-a-half months of 2014 and their opponents would like to shed off their 'chokers' tag in this current ICC event.

Teams (from) : India: Mahendra Singh Dhoni (C), Shikhar Dhawan, Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, Yuvraj Singh, Suresh Raina, Ravindra Jadeja, Ravichandran Ashwin, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Mohammed Shami, Mohit Sharma, Stuart Binny, Ajinkya Rahane, Amit Mishra and Varun Aaron.