ICC World Cup 2023: Who’ll win Pakistan vs South Africa match? Prediction, fantasy team, pitch report and more
World Cup 2023 with back-to-back wins, the Men in Green lost three consecutive matches. The biggest setback happened when they lost to Afghanistan. Now, as it stands, Babar Azam's boys may even fail to qualify for the semi-finals unless they win all their upcoming matches.
South Africa, on the other hand, have been in a spectacular form. They scored 428 runs against Sri Lanka and won the match by 102 runs, 311 against Australia and won it by 134 runs, 399 against England and won it by 229 runs, and 382 against Bangladesh and won it by 149 runs. However, against the Netherlands, they lost by 38 runs.
Interestingly, that was the only time they batted second so far. Pakistan and South Africa have played 82 ODIs with each other so far. Pakistan have 30 of those cricket matches while the Proteas have won 51 matches.
There was no result in 1 match. In the last decisive match between these two in April 2021, Pakistan defeated South Africa by 28 runs. These two have faced off five times in ODI World Cups before today’s match.
Pakistan have won it thrice and Pakistan twice. It is interesting to note that Pakistan won the last two World Cup encounters, in 2019 and 2015, whereas South Africa won it 1992, 1996 and 1999. Abdullah Shafique, Temba Bavuma, Babar Azam (C), Mohammad Rizwan (WK), Quinton de Kock, Rassie van der Dussen, Aiden Markram, Shadab Khan, Kagiso Rabada (VC), Shaheen Shah Afridi and Marco Jansen.
When batters get comfortable with the pace and the bounce of this pitch, they can score big but need to watch out for spinners. The slow pitch can make it tough for power hitters. The pitch helps fast bowlers early in the game.
Read more on livemint.com
