ICC World Twenty20: Spinners will play key role in the 2nd semifinal

Dhaka: In the second semifinal of the ICC World Twenty20, India will lock horns with South Africa on Friday at Shere Bangla National Stadium, Mirpur. So far, the spinners have played a major role in the fifth-edition of coveted tournament and are expected to play a crucial in today`s game as well.

If India have three front line spinners in Amit Mishra, R Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja then South Africa too have Imran Tahir and JP Duminy, who can make an impact in the match with the help of their spin bowling.

Mishra and Ashwin have performed exceptionally well in the tournament and are real threat to the South African batsmen, who are not very good players of spin bowling. Both the tweakers won two Man of the Match awards each, in the four matches that India have played in the on-going edition of the World T20.

Apart from three genuine spinners, India too have part-time spinners in Yuvraj Singh, Suresh Raina and Rohit Sharma. So it`s going to be an acid test for the South African batsmen.

South African leggie, Tahir, too is in a terrific form and is exploiting the conditions in Bangladesh really well. However, Indian batsmen are good players of spin bowling, Tahir has enough tricks up his sleeves to give any batsman a run for his money. So far, Tahir has picked up eleven wickets in the tournament and is a force to reckon with.

India are the favourites to win the game but one can`t write-off the Proteas who have a few match-winners in their side that can turn the tables single-handedly.