Tony Becca

The ICC Champions Trophy cricket tournament is now down to the final four. It is Australia versus New Zealand in Mohali, Chandigarh, tomorrow, it is the West Indies versus South Africa in the pink city of Jaipur on Thursday, and the question is this: who will make it to Brabourne Stadium in Mumbai for the final on Sunday?

On the surface, based on the performance and the rankings of the teams in the past year or so, looking at the players in all four teams, the two teams that should make it to the final are Australia and South Africa.

Looking good

Two-time defending champions of the World Cup, and the number one ranked team for a long, long time, Australia are awesome.

In Adam Gilchrist and Shane Watson, followed by captain Ricky Ponting, Damien Martyn, Andrew Symonds, Michael Clarke and Michael Hussey, the Aussies boast a strong batting line-up.

In pacers Brett Lee and Glenn McGrath, in left-arm pacer Nathan Bracken and Mitchell Johnson, plus offspinner Symonds and left-arm spinner Brad Hogg they parade a wonderful mix of outstanding bowlers; and they are brilliant in the field.

New Zealand, however, will be no push-overs - not with a batting line-up to come from captain Stephen Fleming, Lou Vincent, Nathan Astle, Peter Fulton, Scott Styris, Jacob Oram and Brendon McCullum; and a bowling attack to be selected from fast bowlers Shane Bond and Kyle Mills, pacer Jacob Oram, and left-arm pacer James Franklyn, left-arm spinner Daniel Vettori and off-spinner Jeetan Patel.

The number two ranked team in the world of limited overs cricket, and consistently so, South Africa look good.

With a batting line-up of captain Graeme Smith, Boeta Dippenaar, Herschelle Gibbs, Jacques Kallis and A.B. de Villiers plus Mark Boucher, Justin Kemp and Shaun Pollock, with a bowling attack to come from Pollock, Makhaya Ntini, Andre Nel and Mark Langeveldt plus Kallis, South Africa, led by the brilliant Gibbs in the field, are strong - no question about that.

Should not be written off

Taylor

Despite their number eight ranking at the start of the tournament, the West Indies, however, cannot and should not be written off - not only because they are the defending champions, not only because they defeated Australia in their first match, not only because they defeated India in their second match, and not only, although they lost, because they played well, fairly well, against England.

The West Indies should not be written off because their batting, on its day, is as good as any team in cricket and better than most.

A line-up to come from the explosive Chris Gayle and the consistent and dependable Shivnarine Chanderpaul, Brian Lara, Ramnaresh Sarwan, Dwayne Bravo, and Runako Morton, plus the unreliable but exciting Marlon Samuels and Dwayne Smith can be dangerous.

During the tournament, it has shown signs of clicking, and with the pitches getting better each day, they may just be ready.

The West Indies' problem, or so it appears, is their bowling. Of the four teams, their bowling seems to be the least.

On their day, however, pacers Ian Bradshaw, Jerome Taylor and Corey Collymore can be tight and dangerous, all-rounder Bravo can be a nasty customer with the subtle variation of his medium pace, and the off-spin of batsmen/bowlers Gayle and Samuels can at times be difficult to get away.

On top of that the West Indies, led by Bravo and Smith, have been outstanding in the field.

Making selections

The problem facing the West Indies as they prepare to take on South Africa must be who should be in and who should be out. With Morton truly deserving of a place in the team, with three specialist bowlers expected to be in the team, should it be Samuels or Smith?

With Smith a medium-pace bowler, with Samuels a spin bowler, with pacers Taylor, Bradshaw, Collymore and Bravo all expected to be in the team, with only one other spin bowler, Gayle, expected to be in the team, and with spin having played an important part in almost all the matches to date, with both Gayle and Samuels having bowled well, although Smith would be an asset in the field, Samuels should be the man in the team.

Winners

Who will be the winners? At the beginning when it was eight, the consensus was that any one of them could have won and now that there are four, now that all four teams have lost once each with Australia losing to the West Indies by 10 runs, the West Indies losing to England with nine deliveries to spare, South Africa losing to New Zealand by 87 runs, and with New Zealand losing to Sri Lanka with 84 deliveries to spare, it is still up for grabs.

One thing is certain. Looking at the batting, the bowling and the fielding of all four teams, the matches tomorrow and Thursday should be chockful of excitement.