BIRMINGHAM: After being defeated in their first matches, Pakistan and South Africa would be fighting to stay alive in the ICC Champions Trophy when they take on each other here today.
Pakistan lost their opening match to the West Indies in a low-scoring match, and South Africa were beaten by India by 26 runs.
Dale Steyn is unlikely to be available for South Africa’s vital clash today who sustained a side strain during the warm-up game against Pakistan on June 3.
With Morne Morkel ruled out of the tournament with a quad strain, and Jacques Kallis missing the event for personal reasons, the Protease now lacking experienced bowlers in a must-win game.
On the other hand, not everything is positive for Pakistan either as batting line up failed to make any impression against West Indies. Misbah was the lone batsman to put up a semblance of fight with a 96 not out after coming in at No. 5.
Although the bowlers came up to the expectations in the first encounter but today’s match would depend a lot on how the batsmen perform.
Teams:
Pakistan: Misbah-ul-Haq (c), Abdur Rehman, Asad Ali, Asad Shafiq, Ehsan Adil, Imran Farhat, Junaid Khan, Kamran Akmal (wk), Mohammad Hafeez, Mohammad Irfan, Nasir Jamshed, Saeed Ajmal, Shoaib Malik, Umar Amin, Wahab Riaz
South Africa: AB de Villiers (c, wk), HM Amla, F Behardien, JP Duminy, F du Plessis, CA Ingram, RK Kleinveldt, R McLaren, DA Miller, CH Morris, AN Petersen, RJ Peterson, AM Phangiso, DW Steyn, LL Tsotsobe
Umpires: BF Bowden and RA Kettleborough
TV umpire: NJ Llong
Match referee: J Srinath
Reserve umpire: HDPK Dharmasena
