South Africa and Pakistan are two extremely talented teams. The
former’s strength – as Dale Steyn and Morne Morkel are injured – is the
young batting talent and the innovative AB de Villiers whereas
the
latter is heavily relying on captain’s batting form and bowlers, the
pacers as well as spinners. One more thing common between these two
teams is the fragility.
At their best, they can make the toughest teams look like minnows. At
their worst, they are minnows. Although the C word is associated with
the Africans alone, Pakistan don’t appear to be far from it – they have
played two finals and six semi finals in last six ICC tournaments, but
won it only once. If they want to make the seventh semi in as many
years, they must win tomorrow. If South Africa lose, their vulnerability
in the global events will get highlighted more.
Pakistan beat South Africa comfortably in the warm up game a week
ago, but that shouldn’t make them forget the series they lost to South
Africa in March. Pakistan fought well against West Indies, which is the
biggest positive they can take out of that game. Their batsmen must pull
up socks and perform. Failure tomorrow will put Pakistan chances making
into the semis hanging by thread.
South Africa will be without Morne Morkel and, perhaps, Dale Steyn
too. Misbah-ul-Haq said in the presser that it will give Pakistan
psychological advantage but South Africa have won matches without them
too.
The contest, Misbah-ul-Haq vs AB de Villiers
They aren’t only the captains of their teams, they are the pillars of
their batting departments. Misbah, with 471 runs, is this year’s second
leading run-getter while de Villiers, 444 runs at fourth, isn’t much
far away. The one is painfully orthodox, starts sedately and steadily
finds rhythm, the other is entertaining and so innovative that he
practices the unorthodox shots in a traditional way. In spite of being
two opposite sides of the spectrum they carry most of the burden of
their teams. Both will have to excel as captains as well as batsmen to
see their teams through.
X-Factor
Wahab Riaz bowled near to 150 kmph consistently in the previous game
at the Oval. It was arguably the fastest spell by a Pakistan bowler
since Shoaib Akhtar. More importantly, he didn’t concede runs at the
rate seen earlier this year in South Africa and grabbed crucial wickets.
He could just be the spark Pakistan need in its bowling. He was
innocuous against South Africa three months ago, but this time, with his
current form, he promises to be different.
Robin Peterson scored his maiden ODI fifty eleven years after making
debut in the last game against India and nearly took South Africa out of
trouble. He has started to deliver as batsman and, bearing in mind what
happened at Cape Town in February, Pakistan must be familiar of this
fact. He bowls tidy left-arm finger-spin too (a style of bowling which
has history of troubling Pakistan batsmen). He is the double-deal and
one of the Proteas trump card. Watch out, Pakistan.
Team News
Pakistan lost the previous match but there isn’t much room for
changes in the XI. Umer Amin is the only spare batsman Pakistan have in
the squad. He can replace either Shoaib Malik or Imran Farhat, but his
little experience could go against him when Pakistan team management
join heads to make changes.
Pakistan (likely XI): 1 Imran Farhat, 2 Nasir
Jamshed, 3 Mohammad Hafeez, 4 Asad Shafiq, 5 Misbah-ul-Haq (captain), 6
Shoaib Malik/Umer Amin, 7 Kamran Akmal, 8 Wahab Riaz, 9 Saeed Ajmal 10
Junaid Khan, 11 Mohammed Irfan
With Morne Morkel ruled out and Dale Steyn unlikely. Chris Morris is all set to earn maiden ODI cap.
South Africa (likely XI): 1 Colin Ingram, 2 Hashim Amla, 3 Faf du
Plessis, 4 AB de Villiers (captain), 5 JP Duminy, 6 David Miller, 7 Ryan
McLaren, 8 Robin Peterson, 9 Chris Morris, 10 Lonwabo Tsotsobe, 11 10
Rory Kleinveldt
Weather and conditions
Edgbaston basked in the sunlight on the match eve. The pitch appears
to be dry, could yield some runs with the new balls. The forecast for
the game day is bright. There is no early start to this game so the team
batting first might not face the difficulty there was in the game at
the Oval.
Sun sets in Birmingham at around 9.30pm local time, the game is
scheduled to end at around same time, still for some reason the fixture
is being termed as ‘day and night.’
Stats and Trivia
Pakistan and South Africa have only met once in the Champions Trophy
before. Pakistan lost that game at Mohali 2006 and eventually got
knocked out.
Misbah-ul-Haq’s 96 against West Indies is the highest score by a
Pakistan batsman aged above 39, beating Imran Khan’s 72 in World Cup
Final 1992.
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