Come to the countdown for the last four matches of the league stage, and here it is South Africa vs Afghanistan at the very Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad.
Afghanistan, in their last match, was exceptionally good in reducing Australia to 91/7, before an all-ages superficial knock by Glenn Maxwell steamrolled them and won the match single-handedly. Afghanistan is all, but out of semi-final race due to negative net run-rate.
Meanwhile, South Africa was also steamrolled by India for 83 runs in their last match and although they reached the semi-finals, they will have to win this match in order to brim with confidence in semi-finals to avoid chocking.
With this match-up happening between Afghanistan and South Africa happening rarely in International Cricket, it should give a good run for broadcasters as both the teams have played exceptionally good cricket in this World Cup.
Predicted XI: -
South Africa: Quinton de Kock (wk), Temba Bavuma (c), Rassie van der Dussen, Aiden Markratm, Heinrich Klassen, David Miller, Marco Jansen, Keshav Maharaj, Gerard Coetzee, Kagiso Rabada, Tabraiz Shamsi
Afghanistan: Rahmanullah Gurbaz, Ibrahim Zadran, Rahmat Shah, Hashmatullah Shahidi (c), Azmatullah Omarzai, Ikram Ali-Khil (wk), Mohammad Nabi, Rashid Khan, Mujeeb-ur-Rahman, Naveen-ul-Haq, Fazalhaq Farooqi
Players to check out from each team: -
Quinton de Kock: The 2nd highest run-scorer of this World Cup so far, will he add another century against Afghanistan and level with Rohit Sharma for scoring joint most number of centuries (5) in a single edition of an ODI World Cup?
Azmatullah Omarzai: Watch out for this player as he is the only one from Afghanistan currently to average 50+ and strike at over 100 as a batter, as well as taken 7 wickets in 8 matches he played.
Afghanistan vs South Africa Head-to-Head:
With both the teams facing each other once in the ODI Cricket World Cup platform, the Proteas have won that match by 9 wickets in 2019 World Cup.
Match Particulars:
Date: 10 November 2023
Time: 2:00 PM IST
Venue: Narendra Modi Stadium, Ahmedabad
Pitch Report & Toss:
The Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad is one of the best grounds to offer proper balance between bat and ball. With not even a single total surpassing 300 in all the 3 matches played at this venue in this World Cup so far, expect another mouth-watering clash between two in-form teams, although Afghanistan is out in reckoning for semi-finals due to inferior net run-rate.
Dream XI: -
