The ICC champions trophy gets underway on Tuesday with hosts South Africa taking on the Sri Lankans.

Both sides have had good warm-up matches and the conditions are proving to be an unknown factor as cricket is not normally played in South Africa during September. They may be more like conditions in the sub-continent with a lower, slower pitch than we are used to seeing at Centurion.

Whilst one would expect that would favour the Sri Lankan spinners where they have two world-class match-winning spinners in Muttiah Muralitharan and Ajantha Mendis, don’t discount South Africa’s spin trio of Johna Botha, Roelof va der Merwe and JP Duminy who have come on in leaps and bounds over the last 12 months.

The strength of this Protea’s side is their consistency and focus. Dale Steyn has come out and said he believes that if the Protea’s play to their ability, no team can match them. They’ve been working extremely hard and their lack of game time is of little concern. If they start well, they’ll only get better and better as the tournament progresses.

Graeme Smith has said they can handle the pressure, and their experience at the 20/20 world cup in England can only have helped their mental game. However if they start badly, or even lose their opening game, the pressure will increase exponentially and really test their mettle.

I’m picking South Africa to start well in front of their home crowd, at a ground where they have not lost a ODI in over 5 years. Unless Sri Lanka can produce something special from one of their star performers, they’ll struggle to match the overall depth of a Protea’s unit that has no real physical weaknesses.