🏏ICC Men's T20I WC 2022 - S 12 Match 30- Group 2- Ind vs RSA🏏

🏏ICC Men's T20I WC 2022 - S 12 Match 30- Group 2- India vs South Africa🏏

IND vs SA, 30th Match, Super 12 Group 2, ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2022

Team India made a thumping start to their T20 World Cup 2022 campaign, winning both of their opening matches by comprehensive margins. They outclassed the arch-rivals Pakistan by four wickets in their opening fixture and went on to thrash the Netherlands by 56 runs in their last match.

The former captain of India, Virat Kohli, has been their best batter in the tournament, having smacked back-to-back half-centuries in the first two games, while the likes of Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Arshdeep Singh have made an impact with the ball.

South Africa, on the other hand, registered a massive 104 runs victory over Bangladesh. Batting first, they posted a mammoth total of 205 runs on the board, courtesy of Rilee Rossouw’s sensational hundred and Quinton de Kock’s half-century.

In reply, Bangladesh bundled out for just 101 runs in 16.3 overs with Anrich Nortje picking up a four-wicket haul and Tabrez Shasmi scalping three wickets. They will look to extend their winning run in the tournament.

Although both sides look evenly matched on paper, team India will head into this game with a slight advantage over Proteas given the firepower in their batting unit. All in all, with some of the best T20 stars taking the field against each other, an absolute thriller is on the cards at Perth.

South Africa are one of the sides with a string of left-handers and Ravichandran Ashwin, who warmed up with a brace against Netherlands, will be a big match-up advantage. He has 10 wickets from 9 matches against the Proteas at an economy of 6.81.

Bhuvneshwar Kumar has been similarly impressive (14 wickets from 11 matches at 6.80 ER) and has been a menace for South Africa in the PowerPlays where the Proteas have lost 17 wickets across seven innings against India this year.

Probable XI: Rohit Sharma (c), KL Rahul, Virat Kohli, Suryakumar Yadav, Hardik Pandya, Dinesh Karthik (wk), Axar Patel, Ravichandran Ashwin, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Mohammed Shami, Arshdeep Singh

Probable XI: Quinton de Kock (wk), Temba Bavuma (c), Rilee Rossouw, Aiden Markram, Tristan Stubbs, David Miller, Wayne Parnell, Keshav Maharaj, Kagiso Rabada, Anrich Nortje, Tabraiz Shamsi/Lungi Ngidi/Marco Jansen

Pitch Report

A cloudy evening as per the met department, but there is no forecast for rain during the game time. The track at Perth has offered significant bounce but given India and South Africa will play on a used pitch and with teams batting first winning 13 of the 21 games here, don't be surprised if the toss-winning captain decides to strap his pads on right away, even though the average first innings total here is 133 and that chasing sides have won two of their three games here.

India are choosing to wrap Hardik Pandya in cotton wool. The all-rounder bowled just one over against Netherlands and then was substituted on the field by Deepak Hooda. It is a workload management exercise and he should be available to play. India are unlikely to make any changes to their XI.

South Africa are one of the sides with a string of left-handers and Ravichandran Ashwin, who warmed up with a brace against Netherlands, will be a big match-up advantage. He has 10 wickets from 9 matches against the Proteas at an economy of 6.81.

Bhuvneshwar Kumar has been similarly impressive (14 wickets from 11 matches at 6.80 ER) and has been a menace for South Africa in the PowerPlays where the Proteas have lost 17 wickets across seven innings against India this year.

Quinton de Kock and Rilee Rossouw are the top run-getters for the team so far with 110 and 109 runs respectively. In bowling, Anrich Nortje has grabbed the most 5 wickets for the team. Tabraiz Shamsi has picked 3 wickets.

Did you know?

- Virat Kohli is 28 runs away from leapfrogging Mahela Jayawardene to become the leading run-getter in men's T20 World Cups.

- Temba Bavuma averages 20 from 9 T20Is against India at a modest SR of 97.22. Reeza Hendricks, the man Bavuma has kept out, has scored 57, 53, 70, 74, 42, 74 & 3 in his last seven outings for South Africa.

- Like Suryakumar Yadav, Rilee Rossouw has been in red-hot form in 2022. In 39 T20 innings this year, he's struck at 178.20. Like Suryakumar again, he's adept against both pace (179.62 SR) and spin (175.67 SR).

What they said:

"We are looking to adapt. Of course playing with intent is always the goal. We are looking to score runs whenever we can. But then we need to keep in account the conditions that we are playing on, the surfaces we are playing on. I don't think these are 200, 200-plus wickets, so we'll need to adapt, and I think we have done pretty well in that regard so far." - Vikram Rathour on India's adaptability on challenging wickets after preaching a high-risk brand of batting in the lead up to the World Cup.

"Yes, it is. I would say after COVID, it's something to get used to again, but also with the schedule nowadays, there's so much traveling. Your rest days have become your traveling days, so there's no real rest day anymore. It's a travel day, then a training day before getting used to conditions, and then you play again. So, yes, it's quite tough on the bodies. Luckily, it's only 4-overs, but it's also at a very high intensity. It's not easy, but I think we've sort of come to deal with it now, and you just focus on what you have to do rather than overthinking things and not having that complete off day like we had maybe during bubbles where you could have a full day off, but then also you couldn't go out. It's nice to leave your floor in the hotel as well. It's give and take." - Anrich Nortje on the constant travelling and adjusting to multiple time zones.

T20I Head to Head: India 13-9 South Africa. India also hold a 4-1 advantage in encounters at T20 World Cups.

Recent Venue Records (Perth Stadium, Australia)

Stats- T20Is

Total matches- 5

Matches won batting first- 2

Matches won bowling first- 3

Average 1st Inns scores- 142

Average 2nd Inns scores- 141

Highest total recorded- 208/6 (20 Ov) by ENG vs AUS

Lowest total recorded- 112/10 (19.4 Ov) by AFG vs ENG

Highest score chased- 158/3 (16.3 Ov) by AUS vs SL

Lowest score defended- 130/8 (20 Ov) by ZIM vs PAK

The team winning the toss might opt to bat first. India opted to bat first in the last match and also won the game. South Africa batted first in their last match and won the match. Hence, both teams will look to bat first in the next game as well.

The final match in Perth and the city will sign off with a blockbuster clash between India and South Africa. It's a high octane clash made more interesting with some of the other results in the group. The winner of tonight's clash will have one leg into the semis, while the loser would join the prevailing chaos amidst three other teams. Both teams are coming off comprehensive victories - South Africa thrashing Bangladesh while India routed Netherlands. But we are at the fastest and the bounciest surface in Australia and that puts Bavuma's men (with their tall pacers) as slight favourites. But India have always found a way to beat odds and they'll be hoping to keep their clean slate going.