Highlight
England and South Africa will meet in the T20 World Cup in 2021.
England is almost certain to reach the semifinals.
South Africa must defeat England in order to have any realistic chance of making it to the semifinals.
Even though England is virtually guaranteed a place in the semifinals, the in-form side will look to dent South Africa’s hopes of making it out of Group 1 Super 12 when the two teams meet on Saturday in Sharjah for a high-voltage ICC T20 World Cup match.
Assured of a semi-final spot, England will aim to scupper South Africa’s hopes of progressing further at the ICC T20 World Cup when the two sides meet in Sharjah on Saturday. A net run rate of +3.183 means that England is almost certain to reach the semifinals, while South Africa is in third place with six points from four games. However, the Australians lead South Africa in Group 1 by virtue of a better net run rate, even though both teams have six points to their credit.
Australia and West Indies face each other in the first match of the day, and South Africa will know exactly what they need to do before facing England.
The Proteas can’t afford to slip even a bit and need a resounding win to keep their hopes alive. A fearsome-looking England will start as clear underdogs against South Africa’s Proteas, but they have a good track record.
For the first time in their World Cup campaign, South Africa lost to Australia in their final match, raising doubts about the team’s chances.
As a result, England would be eager to take advantage of the situation and finish the group stage undefeated.
So far, they’ve accomplished everything they set out to do in their campaign. England was one of the tournament’s best teams, if not the best, apart from Pakistan.
It wasn’t a cakewalk in any of the four matches, but at least one member of the English team stepped up to save the day whenever the team was in trouble.
Jos Buttler, Jason Roy, Dawid Malan, Jonny Bairstow, and Eoin Morgan form the core of England’s batting.
With his 101 not out from 67 balls, Buttler became only the second English cricketer to score a century in all three formats of the game in the final match.
Saturday’s opener would be confident enough to repeat the feat. An additional plus for England is the performance of skipper Morgan, who scored 40 off 36 balls and shared 112 runs with Jos Buttler in the most recent match.
Chris Woakes, Chris Jordan, and Liam Livingstone have responded well to the team’s call in the pace department, while Adil Rashid and Moeen Ali have been excellent in the spin department.
As a result of Tymal Mills’ right thigh strain in England’s last match, the left-arm pacer will miss this year’s World Cup.
South Africa’s World Cup campaign has been abysmal, despite their three straight victories.
Against Australia, they succumbed to the pressure, and Temba Bavuma’s team can’t afford to make the same mistake again.
The fate of South Africa is not entirely in their hands. The Proteas must win by a large margin against England or hope West Indies beat Australia by a margin that reduces Australia’s NRR in order to overtake Australia on NRR.
All-rounder Tabraiz Shamsi will spearhead South Africa’s bowling attack, which will be supported by Anrich Nortje and Dwaine Pretorious in addition to Quinton de Kock and Aiden Markram.
