Friday's ICC Cricket World Cup action offers the Proteas the opportunity to strengthen their hand in the race for semi final places when they take on Pakistan in Chennai.

Pakistan

Pakistan started started with two victories at Hyderabad, first up they beat the Netherlands by 81 runs and next time out they chased down Sri Lanka's bat first total of 344/9 with tons from Abdullah Shafique and Mohammad Rizwan to win by 6 wickets. Since then things have not gone to plan.

Pakistan lost their third match to India by 7 wickets and then went down to Australia by 62 runs. They were huge favourites to get back on track against Afghanistan at this venue last time out but they became the latest victim of a big upset.

Babar Azam top scored with 74 of Pakistan's bat first total of 282/7 against Afghanistan but their bowling unit failed to fire and Afghan got home with an over to spare and all of 8 wickets in tact.

Squads and Team News

This was how Pakistan lined up last time out.

Abdullah Shafique, Imam-ul-Haq, Babar Azam (c), Mohammad Rizwan (wk), Saud Shakeel, Iftikhar Ahmed, Shadab Khan, Usama Mir, Shaheen Afridi, Hasan Ali, Haris Rauf

Did not play: Mohammad Nawaz, Mohammad Wasim Jr, Fakhar Zaman, Agha Salman

South Africa

South Africa made it 4 wins from 5 matches when they beat Bangladesh by 149 runs in Mumbai on Tuesday. Quinton de Kock made 174 and Klaasen 90 in another big total of 382/5. Coetzee then took 3 wickets and Jansen, Williams and Rabada all struck twice. The Bangladesh innings closed on 233 all out with the only resistance coming from Mahmudullah who hit a ton down the order.

Prior to that the Proteas dished out a record 229 hiding to England, also at Mumbai. Heinrich Klaasen smashed a 67 ball 109 which propelled South Africa to 399/7 and the bowlers were on top of England from the start of the chase.

South Africa began their tournament against Sri Lanka and they came out on top by all of 102 runs and then beat Australia by 134 runs with de Kock scoring a century in both those matches. The one blemish on the record could still be a significant one, a 38 run loss to the Netherlands who recovered from 140/7 to post 245/8 and South Africa were all out for 207 in reply.

Squads and Team News

This was how the Proteas lined up last time out.

Quinton de Kock (wk), Reeza Hendricks, Rassie van der Dussen, Aiden Markram (c), Heinrich Klaasen, David Miller, Marco Jansen, Gerald Coetzee, Keshav Maharaj, Kagiso Rabada, Lizaad Williams

Did not play: Tabraiz Shamsi, Andile Phehlukwayo, Temba Bavuma, Lungi Ngidi

Head to Head

Overall the teams have met 82 times with Pakistan winning 30 to South Africa's 51 with 1 no result

The teams last met in a 3 match series in South Africa in April 2021 and Pakistan won 2-1

In CWC 2019 Pakistan beat South Africa by 49 runs

The Betting

Pakistan are currently trading at around 1.52/1 to win the game and South Africa can be backed at around 11/20

Note all prices are correct at the time of writing but are subject to change

The Verdict

Pakistan have had a look at the Chennai conditions but that came in the defeat to Afghanistan and the Proteas, barring the loss to the Netherlands, appear to be full of themselves right now. The batsmen are making big runs and although Chennai will probably a lot tougher deck than Mumbai was I will go with any South African to make a ton against a bowling unit who were very poor against Afghan.

I'm also looking to the exotics and Rizwan gets my vote to hit a six, something he managed against Afghanistan even though his innings only lasted 10 balls. Elsewhere over 1.5 wickets for Marco Jansen looks well within the big man’s range.

Bets: South Africa hundred in the Match? (yes) at 17/10 with Pokerbet

Total Match 6's Rizwan over 0.5 at 1.37/1 with Pokerbet

Marco Jansen over 1.5 wickets at 12/10 with Pokerbet

Note all prices are correct at the time of writing but are subject to change

Discussion Forum

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