The South Africans wouldn't have seen the dozens of India replica shirt sellers on the paths leading to Eden Gardens on Saturday, a pile of azure and saffron hopes and dreams in front of each of them. They wouldn't have taken note of the scrums of hopefuls at the ticket counters, nor felt the urgency and intensity that shimmered from them.
TOP OF THE TABLE CLASH
A heavyweight bout at the Eden Gardens
Temba Bavuma hasn't ruled out playing two spinners in Kolkata. © AFP
They would have had no clue about the scores of workers ranged around this grand but strangely bleak ground, waiting in the shade to do whatever it is they had been employed to do. But, after their training session, they would have heard the rising wave of cheers that greeted their bus as it pulled away and melted into the fast falling evening. And they would have known: they are not in Kansas anymore. Or anywhere India aren't.
The men's World Cup, for India and South Africa, starts on Sunday. These sides have spent the tournament like the big beasts they are, circling each other and putting other, lesser sides in their place. They are at the top of the
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