Former South Africa cricketer Jonty Rhodes on Monday named his finalists for the ongoing ICC Cricket World Cup in England and Wales.
Seeing the way four semi-finalists are lined-up, Rhodes believes India will take on defending champions Australia in 2019 World Cup final at Lord’s on July 14.
In the semi-finals, India will face New Zealand while Australia takes on hosts England. India finished the league stage at the top with 7 wins from 9 games while Australia narrowly missed out on the top spot after they were defeated in their last match by South Africa.
“Australia are going to play India in the final. But, no one is a favourite,” Rhodes told Hindustan Times.
Despite winning their last league match against Australia, South Africa finished the tournament at the seventh position with 5 defeats from their 8 complete games.
Reflecting on the Proteas performance in the 2019 World Cup, Rhodes said: “The last twelve months have not been that pretty when it comes to their domestic results and they did not know their best XI. When you go to a World Cup and you are not even sure about your playing XI, I think you are in trouble.”
“Their performance has been quite disappointing but as far as rankings are concerned, they were quite generously poised at No. 3 before the tournament. They were unable to replace AB de Villiers and you can’t accept him back at the last moment. Also, the players who were expected to perform did not work out in the tournament,” he continued.
Rhodes also blamed South Africa’s strategy for the dismal run and said that they lacked any sort of ‘Plan B’ when it came to playing higher ranked teams.
“They really did not have a Plan B. Plan A was to bowl fast. But England has two summers. One is cold and swinging conditions while others one is flat and hot. You can’t just have Plan A here. You cannot just expect to bowl people over with sheer pace. So, in my opinion, they need different approaches to the game,” he concluded.
