🏏 Cricket World Cup 2023: Match #20: England vs South Africa🏏

If two teams are equal, they both have a history of recovering from the toughest circumstances!! The encounter today between Eng vs SA is intriguing because it raises the spirits of one team and questions the aspirations of another.

🏏 Cricket World Cup 2023: Match #20: England vs South Africa🏏

England and South Africa will have redemption on their agendas as both sides look to bounce back to winning ways after losing their previous games in the ICC ODI World Cup 2023.

Jos Buttler’s men will face Temba Bavuma’s side as the World Cup caravan reaches the iconic Wankhede Stadium for the first time in this edition today.

England suffered the first major giant-killing in the ODI World Cup 2023, losing to Afghanistan as Buttler and Co. failed to chase down a total of 286 runs.

Rashid Khan and Mujeeb ur Rahman trapped England batters in their spin-web after a spirited batting display for the Afghans.

With just one win from three outings, England have little room for errors as the onus will be on the defending champions to get their World Cup campaign back on track.

Ben Stokes has missed the past couple of games for England; if he can return to full fitness it will be a big boost for the English side.

On the other hand, the Proteas suffered the second major upset of the World Cup so far, losing to the Netherlands.

The Oranje managed to score 245 runs, but the South African unit was all out for 207 runs in Dharamsala as Bavuma and Co. were handed their first defeat of the World Cup so far.

Having started their World Cup campaign with two wins, the Proteas will be hoping to beat England and get that feel-good factor back in the camp after an off-day against the Dutch.

What is crystal clear is that today's match looms as a knockout game in all but official status!!

Another win, and the campaign will be resurrected. Another loss, especially for England, and thoughts will turn to a long and draining traipse around India waiting to be one of the six sides who will be eliminated after the league stage.

It will be a thrilling match for sure!!

Tag Credit: Sutapasima

England vs South Africa Head-to-head Record

• May 30, 2019: England beat South Africa by 104 runs in London
• March 6, 2011: England beat South Africa by 6 runs in Chennai
• April 17, 2007: South Africa beat England by 9 wickets in Bridgetown
• May 22, 1999: South Africa beat England by 122 runs at Kennington
• March 12, 1992: England beat South Africa by 3 wickets through DLS method, at Melbourne

ENG vs SA Probable Teams

England: Jonny Bairstow, Dawid Malan, Joe Root, Ben Stokes, Harry Brook, Jos Buttler(c/wk), Liam Livingstone, Chris Woakes, Adil Rashid, Reece Topley, Mark Wood.

South Africa: Quinton de Kock (wk), Temba Bavuma (c), Rassie van der Dussen, Aiden Markram, Heinrich Klaasen, David Miller, Marco Jansen, Kagiso Rabada, Keshav Maharaj, Lungi Ngidi, Gerald Coetzee

Thank you for the thread and tag.

Hope South Africa wins

As they do when they bat, players tend to use triggers when they talk to the press. At the crease they use short, sharp movements - their back foot moving across the stumps as the bowler reaches their delivery stride, for instance. In front of the microphones they say the same word in answering different questions, usually to buy a moment's time to mentally polish their responses.

Jos Buttler's trigger word is "obviously". He deployed it nine times in his short press conference on Friday (October 20), usually to buy a moment's time to mentally polish his answers to questions.

The care and effort to take these things seriously is appreciated; Buttler is among cricket's more articulate and thoughtful press conference victims. But the admittedly weak joke is on him: little is obvious about England's World Cup match against South Africa at the Wankhede

The South Africans won't be under only the, ahem, obvious pressure. The match will end hours before the Springboks play England in Paris in a rugby World Cup semifinal. The Boks have won three World Cups, the Proteas none. The Boks have never lost a final. The Proteas have never reached a final.

So it meant something that Springbok captain Siya Kolisi took time out of his team's preparations for the match to send his cricketing counterparts a video. "We believe in you guys," Kolisi said as he stood next to head coach Jacques Nienaber. "We trust you guys. One hiccup, but you know what to do. Enjoy it and play as hard as you can. You know that over 60-million South Africans will be supporting you, including us. So make it special."

The significant coincidence wasn't lost on Temba Bavuma, who said at his press conference: "It doesn't happen often that two sports converge in a global product like they will do this weekend. There's a lot of excitement about Super Saturday in South Africa. It's extra context to add to what is going to be a crucial battle. A lot of us love rugby, so we'll definitely be supporting the Springboks. We play first, so the responsibility's on us to put smiles on our compatriots' faces and make sure we go out and entertain. And bring back to win."

Wankhede Stadium Pitch Report:

The upcoming World Cup clash between England and South Africa at the Wankhede Stadium is likely to favour the batters, owing to the pitch’s characteristics. Additionally, the short dimensions of the ground makes it easy for batters to score boundaries effortlessly.

The pitch initially grants advantages to fast bowlers, gradually shifting in favour of spinners as the game unfolds. Winning the toss and electing to bowl first would be an effective decision at this venue.

What to expect: The Indian Meteorological Department has issued a red alert about Cyclone Tej, which is due to hit Mumbai in the next 48 hours. But the usual suspect weather forecasts don't mention it affecting Maximum City much. Go figure. The pitch is more predictable: red soil, so the fast bowlers' and big hitters' friend.

South Africa

It would seem surprising that an XI who were properly beaten in their previous match should be retained, but that's likely. South Africa's choice throughout the tournament will be between Gerald Coetzee and Tabraiz Shamsi, and Coetzee looks set to crack the nod this time.

Tactics & strategy

Bat big, try to bowl at least as big. If South Africa have a weakness it's with ball in hand. The Dutch proved that by hitting and hustling 104 off the last nine overs. The batting is under less scrutiny, but the World Cup's most hyped top six will be stung at having been reduced to 44/4 by the Netherlands.

England

Big Ben's back. Ben Stokes, that is, who has recovered from a hip problem and is expected to play his first match of the tournament. Half of Ben Stokes, anyway: he won't bowl. Even so, 50% of a talismanic allrounder is better than none.

As many seamers as possible seems to be the goal. But which seamers? Sam Curran, England's worst performing quick in the tournament, could make way for David Willey. Stokes' inclusion might come at the expense of Adil Rashid, leaving Joe Root to do the spinner's job.

Tactics & strategy

It's complicated. A side who have played compellingly simple cricket for years face questions on multiple fronts. The most pressing among them is where did England's get up and go get up and go to? Their previous impressive decisiveness was missing for much of their first three games, but the fact that their top three of Jonny Bairstow, Dawid Malan and Joe Root made two 50s and century between them against Bangladesh in Dharamsala in their most recent match, when Reece Topley took 4/43, suggests improvement.

Question- does every country have their own unique color uniforms or does some countries have same color as well?

Did you know?

- Ben Stokes starred in his only World Cup match against South Africa, at the Oval in 2019, by scoring 89 off 79, taking 2/12 in 17 deliveries, and claiming two catches - one of them an outrageous diving reverse-cup miracle on the midwicket fence to remove Andile Phehlukwayo.

- Seven of the England XI who played in the teams' 2019 World Cup clash are in the current squad, versus six of South Africa's. The absentees include luminaries like Eoin Morgan, Jofra Archer, Hashim Amla, Faf du Plessis and Imran Tahir.

- England haven't lost a World Cup match against South Africa since 2007, when the South Africans earned their third victory in as many tournaments against them.