India vs South Africa, World Cup 2023: Rohit vs Jansen and other key player battles in Sunday's showdown at Eden

India gear up for what could be the toughest test of their ICC World Cup campaign so far when they face South Africa at Kolkata’s Eden Gardens on Sunday. India and South Africa have been two of the most dominant teams in the World Cup so far, and the upcoming battle of the heavyweights might just decide which team gets to finish on top of the table at the end of the league stage.

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India had started off with a nervy six-wicket win against Australia in Chennai, but have registered clinical performances in each of their six matches since then, and became the first team to qualify for the semi-finals with a 302-run hammering of Sri Lanka in Mumbai on Thursday.

South Africa too have registered dominant wins in every game barring the two occasions when they were asked to chase, losing by 38 runs against the Netherlands before registering a thrilling one-wicket win against Pakistan.

Read | India vs South Africa ODI rivalry in numbers

Ahead of Sunday’s encounter at the Eden Gardens, a historic venue in South African cricket given it was here that they ended their 20-year isolation in November 1991, we take a look at some of the key player match-ups:

Rohit Sharma vs Marco Jansen

Rohit Sharma has been one of the standout batters in the ongoing World Cup and currently stands fifth in the chart. Marco Jansen, meanwhile, is the joint-second-most successful bowler in the ongoing tournament with 16 scalps.

Rohit has been responsible for getting India off to flying starts more often than not in the ongoing tournament and Jansen has become South Africa’s premier new-ball option in this tournament, his early strikes playing an important role in the Proteas’ superb run so far. Add to that the fact that Jansen likes troubling batters with a series of short deliveries that he is able to so easily generate due to his height. And on the other hand, we have Rohit who is one of the best pullers in the sport at the moment. Should make for a cracker of a powerplay contest.

Shreyas Iyer vs Keshav Maharaj

Iyer stamped out any remaining doubts over his credibility as the first-choice option for India’s No 4 spot with a cracking 82 off just 56 deliveries against Sri Lanka which went a long way in helping the Men in Blue go past the 350-run mark at Wankhede.

And the Mumbaikar had been using his feet superbly against the spinners in that knock, primarily to dance down the track and smash them out of the ground. Keshav Maharaj, meanwhile, is among the top three wicket-takers among spinners in the ongoing tournament, including a haul of 4/46 against New Zealand in South Africa’s last fixture on Wednesday.

Virat Kohli vs Kagiso Rabada

Virat Kohli vs Kagiso Rabada — a storied rivalry between India’s No 1 batter of this generation against South Africa’s No 1 bowler. Kohli v Rabada has been a contest between two fiery individuals who are known to wear their hearts on their sleeves and not hold back when it comes to dishing out pleasantries to members of the opposition (though both players have somewhat toned down their aggression in recent years).

Coming to the ongoing tournament, Kohli is in the middle of a golden run with the bat, having collected 442 runs at an average of 88.40 with a century and four fifties that has put him at the third spot on the run-scoring charts. Rabada hasn’t been having a bad World Cup either. He is one of only two South Africans among the top-10 wicket-takers in this tournament, sitting at the 10th spot with 11 wickets, as many as he had managed in the last World Cup but with a much better average.

Quinton de Kock vs India’s new-ball attack

Quinton de Kock has made the ongoing World Cup his own and is making sure he bows out of ODIs in style, collecting 545 runs in seven outings including four centuries — which has helped him go level with Kumar Sangakkara’s record for most centuries in a single edition of the World Cup by a wicketkeeper-batter.

India’s pacers, meanwhile, are breathing fire at the moment and bowling with great rhythm and they’ve played as much part in India’s seven-match winning streak as the likes Kohli and Rohit have. The trio of Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Siraj and Mohammed Shami had reduced Sri Lanka and England to 14/6 and 40/4 in the first 10 overs of their respective chases in India’s last two outings.

How de Kock negotiates the Indian pacers, especially the initial overs from Bumrah and Siraj before Shami’s introduced towards the end of the first powerplay, could have a major impact on the match. Especially since de Kock’s conversion in this World Cup has been fantastic and he ends up getting to the three-figure mark more often than not once he gets settled.

Heinrich Klaasen vs Kuldeep Yadav

Few batters have been as dominant against spin in recent memory as middle-order batter Heinrich Klaasen. Kuldeep Yadav, meanwhile, has been India’s standout bowler in ODIs this year and has also had his moments in the ongoing World Cup even if the pacers have been hogging the limelight.

Klaasen is a key member in the destructive South African middle order alongside Aiden Markram and David Miller along with Jansen who has been helping the Proteas post totals in the range of 400 on an astonishingly frequent basis. It is their ability to go hammer-and-tongs at will against the best of attacks in the world in the last 10 overs that makes South Africa such a powerful batting side and Klaasen certainly has done his part in building that reputation with his knocks of 109 and 90 against England and Bangladesh respectively.

He faces a key threat from Kuldeep, who has surpassed Nepal’s Sandeep Lamichhane to become the leading wicket-taker in ODIs this year and has also taken 10 wickets in the ongoing tournament at an average and economy of 26.40 and 4.40 respectively.