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Game 2: England versus South Africa, October 25, 1998

The teams line up thus:

South Africa: *WJ Cronje, DM Benkenstein, N Boje, MV Boucher, DN Crookes, DJ Cullinan, AC Dawson, S Elworthy, JH Kallis, G Kirsten, M Ntini, SM Pollock, JN Rhodes, PL Symcox.

England: AJ Hollioake, ID Austin, AD Brown, DR Brown, MA Ealham, NH Fairbrother, MV Fleming, AF Giles, GA Hick, NV Knight, GD Lloyd, PJ Martin, RC Russell, CEW Silverwood.

This could be one game where the toss really has little or no bearing -- by any yardstick, England look totally outclassed here. This side in fact reminds you of a Martin Johnson classic: "There are only three things wrong with England -- they can't bat, they can't bowl, they can't field."

Sounds harsh? The fact is that this side has easily the weakest attack in the tournament, bar none -- and that is a fatal weakness going into a knockout tournament of this nature. Also, thanks to the England board's mindset that the Ashes is the be all and end all of cricket (I mean, the first Test of the series starts on November 20, but the England squad is already in Australia, 'acclimatising', talk of overkill), the team seems badly fractured.

The England selectors put a brave face on it, calling this a specialist one day squad. On paper, though, it's tough to see what precisely this squad specialises in. In fact, what this team reminds me of is India's recent experiment with "two equally strong teams" -- and we all know what happened on that occasion.

This tournament format peculiarly favours the South African mindset -- those guys play every single game like it's their last. Or, put differently, they only have one gear, and that is top.

Most often, this gets to be a bit of a handicap. For instance, while the side plays to peak potential even in a prelim game, other sides tend to pace themselves, to give only just enough to get through into the next game. And then, come the crunch, they reach deep within themselves for that extra something that makes for a truly memorable performance.

Those are the sides that pull of spectacular wins and, at times, crash to ridiculous defeats -- something that never seems to happen with SA. Their performances don't oscillate as wildly, because they play pretty much each game at par -- the downside of that being that most times, when it comes to needing that little extra something, SA doesn't have it to give.

Here, though, a team that goes flat out from the very beginning would seem to have the ideal mindset for a knockout-type fixture.

True, SA will hugely miss the experience, and pace, of Allan Donald. Shaun Pollock, however, has proved that he has what it takes to lead the attack in Donald's absence, Ntini has been visibly improving by the game, and Kallis is deceptively quick when he wants to be, with the ability to throttle back and bowl a restrictive line if that is what is indicated. Add the skipper, and Symcox, and they don't seem to have too many problems with the ball.

The team is, further, brilliant in the field, and outstanding when it comes to taking the quick singles -- two attributes that should take them a long way here. And the pinch-hitting skills of Symcox is going to give them just that little edge in the event of an early wicket going down.

All told -- and irrespective of the outcome of the toss -- this game could go only the one way. In the Protean direction, that is.

• Game 1: New Zealand versus Zimbabwe, October 24, 1998
• Game 3: Sri Lanka versus winner of New Zealand versus Zimbabwe , October 26, 1998
• Game 4: India versus Australia, October 28, 1998
• Game 5: Pakistan versus West Indies, October 29, 1998
• Knock, knock, who's out?