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India batting great Sunil Gavaskar has picked South Africa and England as the teams to make it to the final of the ICC T20 World Cup since they are the only sides to remain unbeaten in the Super Eights stage of the tournament.
South Africa and England have won all three of their respective matches in the Super Eights. In fact, SA are yet to lose in the tournament and are on a seven-match winning streak. England, on the other hand, only lost their second Group stage match to West Indies.
When asked who he feels will make the final, Gavaskar, 76, didn’t pick India. “In a T20, the game can change in an over or so, but if you look at the form going into the semis, you will see that SA and England have won all their matches in the Super Eights, while India and New Zealand have lost one each. So, you would say that those two teams [SA and England] are favourites to get into the final,” Gavaskar told mid-day during a media interaction ahead of the DP World Celebrity Golf Event in Mumbai on March 6 to create awareness on the Champs Foundation.
However, the former India skipper, who scored 10,122 runs in 125 Tests, admitted that the hosts are peaking at the right time with the injection of Sanju Samson as opener. “Sometimes, you have a situation where the pieces are falling into the right place. I believe Rinku Singh’s father’s illness at that stage, and because he was away, made the opening for Sanju Samson to be brought into the team in Chennai [vs Zimbabwe]. He, along with Abhishek Sharma, got the team off to a start of over 40 runs. In all the matches till then, one of the openers, either Abhishek or Ishan Kishan, had got out for a duck. That partnership [Abhishek and Samson] steadied the Indian innings. So, the pieces have certainly fallen into place and I think England are peaking and India are also peaking,” Gavaskar signed off.
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