Australia-SA game the decider as Group 1 fate unravels
The Australians need to beat South Africa at Durban to stay alive in the semis race
As the tournament moves into it's final couple of rounds, seven teams are competing for the four semi-final spots; none decided yet. The Australia vs South Africa encounter at Durban on the 3rd of September however will be a virtual knock-out that will potentially decide, or not do so, the semi-finalists from Group 1.
It is indeed a genuine do-or-die for Australia, who will have to win this game to remain in contention. A loss would mean both New Zealand & South Africa confirmed through to the next round- and Group A's fate would have been sealed with 4 games still left to play in the group.
However things would get interesting if the Australians end on the good side of the result- sending South Africa into a do-or-die for their last game against New Zealand, and opening up the possibility for a three-way tie on 4 points between the three teams if the Proteas do manage to win their encounter with the Kiwis. This means not even New Zealand themselves will be confirmed to qualify until that NZ-SA encounter reaches its conclusion, where NRR is going to absolutely be the decider if all teams do end up on equal wins in the end.
The simplest bet for Australia though, without NRR or any other hiccups, would be to just go and win the next two games, and hope New Zealand win the last game. Australia would not be able to qualify as the top team of the group, however will be confirmed through as the second team in this case. A three-way tie however can help them finish first if their NRR is high enough. And currently, it is the lowest of the three teams- but two good wins should suffice if other results go their way.
South Africa just need to win today. If they do they're in, and the Kiwis too would hope for this to be the case as they too join the Proteas in the semis as a result, immediately, without any last-round tensions. The NZ-SA game then becomes a shoot-out for the top spot, deciding who plays Group 2's runner-up in the Semi-Final 1 at Durban.
The home side has won 3 games so far, but all being against the three lower ranked sides. The real challenge beckons against Australia, a decider match for the fate of the group- whether the Aussies stay alive and push for that spot, or do they bow out and immediately send the other two through. Australia are on their own today, with no one but themselves on their side- it should be a good contest, and one that will matter a lot for both teams going forward.
Pitch Report: Durban is a green wicket as usual, with lots of grass and a hard surface. It will deteriorate as the match progresses.
Toss: Australian captain Aaron Finch calls heads and it is heads. Australia have won the toss.
Aaron Finch: We will bat first again. We had great success last game defending and it has been a good trend this tournament too. The wicket too supports that. It's a do-or-die and we're up against an unbeaten side at their home so this is our biggest game yet. We need to play to our 101% as we need to stay alive, cannot let go this soon. We've come back strong after our first loss, but that result makes this game ever so crucial now. We have 1 change in lineup, Ben McDermott comes in for Mitch Marsh. He was great in the warm-ups. Our bowling has been very good these few games, hopefully we get a good score on board and defend it, it should be a good clash.
Australia: Aaron Finch , D'Arcy Short, Chris Lynn, Glenn Maxwell, Marcus Stoinis, Ben McDermott , Alex Carey , Mitchell Starc, Andrew Tye, Kane Richardson, Adam Zampa
(Mitchell Marsh )
Faf du Plessis: Good to be back. Last game was a bit tight yeah, we let ourselves down with the bat initially but Miller & Morris, they were outstanding, and so was our bowling. Chasing this time, like our first game- but Australia are a very tough opponent, and this game is very crucial for both of us. Obviously we don't want to take it to the end, a win here would mean qualification and we want to provide that for the home crowd, so we will be at our best today, it is necessary. Going with the same team, would be harsh to drop any of our bowlers now. Our batting definitely needs to kick on, hopefully today's the day.
South Africa: Quinton de Kock , Hashim Amla, Reeza Hendricks, Faf du Plessis , Jean-Paul Duminy, David Miller, Chris Morris, Andile Phehlukwayo, Kagiso Rabada, Lungi Ngidi, Imran Tahir
Australia won the toss and opt to bat first.
1st Innings
Australia once again put on a dominant batting performance, off the back of Chris Lynn this time, who notches up a brilliant knock of 68 with 10 boundaries, settling to his position down at 3. Finch smacked two fours to start but was dismissed for just 16 by Rabada, but that was when Lynn came in to stitch a clinical partnership of 87 runs with Short- the latter departing before his fifty but doing his job well enough. Phehlukwayo bagged a few scalps at the death after all this to bring the Proteas back, but cameos from Carey & Starc take Australia to 181 in the end. Will they be able to defend this or will South Africa come all guns blazing in the chase??
South Africa need 182 runs to win off 20 overs
@ 9.10 RPO
2nd Innings
Australia do the business with the ball brilliantly to follow up that batting performance with, and its Andrew Tye who strikes big today with four scalps, silencing the home crowd for the first time this tournament! Tye started off with the big wicket of de Kock, while Starc struck twice at the start with the other two batters of the Top 3, and Tye got the captain of the Proteas out for a duck- and before you know it South Africa were struggling at 25/4. Duminy finally stepped up with the bat to play a mature knock of 45 with a solid partnership on the other end- Phehlukwayo provided this, a 70 run stand that ended with 4 overs to go, but with over 60 runs to get, it was pretty much over. South Africa needed someone to accelerate, but non-affirmative, and the death bowlers finished it off as they were cleaned up for 127 in the end- the group is well alive!
Pitch Report: We return to Gqeberha for the last time, on a used wicket. It looks heavy on cracks and quite poor, batting might be very difficult. Expect 140 to be a winning score here kind of pitch.
Toss: England captain Morgan calls heads and it is tails. Pakistan have won the toss.
Sarfaraz Ahmed: We are going to bat first again. This pitch looks quite dusty and difficult to get runs on as the report says, but chances are it will get worse in second innings. We have a very good bowling attack, which is our key weapon- and we have been increasingly good in defending totals. We are in a crucial points-tie and have 2 big games ahead of us, and the points we get from them will be very crucial for our qualification. We are going with 2 changes in our lineup. Hussain Talat & Imad Wasim play their first match of the tournament. Shoaib Malik & Shaheen Afridi sit out. We feel the pitch looks dead enough for the extra spinner to help, Shaheen is a good bowler but Imad is an outstanding ace and we have to stick to our best combo. Inshallah, hope for another victory.
Pakistan: Babar Azam, Fakhar Zaman, Mohammad Hafeez, Hussain Talat , Sarfaraz Ahmed , Asif Ali, Imad Wasim , Shadab Khan, Faheem Ashraf, Hasan Ali, Mohammad Amir
(Shoaib Malik, Shaheen Afridi )
Eoin Morgan: Finally chasing, that's a first for us this tournament after 3 games batting first. We've been hearing the talk about England being "underdog bashers" and so and so, but we're not letting anything affect us. Obviously we've had faults and we've let two games get unnecessarily close, and lost a third. We are facing top sides in our up and coming fixtures so we are really looking to introspect and learn from errors to be competitive enough. 1 change in the batting, Joe Root comes in for Bairstow- Root is an incredible batter and we feel his ability to stabilise the innings will be of extreme utility to us, especially on a tough wicket today, with our middle-order having failed over the last few times in playing out the long game. Hopefully a much better show today from the boys and these 2 points will be very crucial.
England: Jason Roy, Jos Buttler , Alex Hales, Joe Root , Eoin Morgan , Ben Stokes, David Willey, Tom Curran, Chris Jordan, Adil Rashid, Mark Wood
(Jonny Bairstow )
Pakistan won the toss and opt to bat first.
1st Innings
The England bowlers find plenty of life on this wicket today, but its Chris Jordan who makes the most of it with three bags in his late-over spell, closing out the death phase with wickets and restrict Pakistan to a mere 101. Pakistan struggled to get going on a dead pitch, Babar & Hafeez the only ones who survived for a decent number of balls but could barely up the run rate and convert to a bigger score as well. All the English Bowlers bowled at an economy of 6 and under, and took wickets continuously to prevent any of the other Pakistani batters from stepping up. A cakewalk chase for England, or is it not as easy as it looks?
England need 102 runs to win off 20 overs
@ 5.10 RPO
2nd Innings
It was far from a straightforward chase for England, as the fiery Pakistani bowling feasted on the pitch as much as the other side, but captain Eoin Morgan, under a lot of scrutiny himself for his rut of scores, steps up in the most crucial situation to take his team home in some absurd conditions. England lost both openers for a run each and were 3/2 by the 7th ball. But coming in at the sixth over, Morgan stitched an instrumental partnership with Joe Root on the other end. The pair added 62 handy runs, in over 11 overs, providing England that much needed stability in a slow but steady run chase. After Root's wicket, a twist in the tale as Hafeez bagged three in a single over to suddenly bring Pakistan back into the game, but captain Morgan remained and slammed a six to take them to victory, with ten balls to spare.
Pitch Report: Today's pitch at Boland Park, Paarl is dusty and dry. Will assist spinners and medium quicks more than pacers. Batting will be somewhat difficult.
Toss: Afghanistan captain calls heads and it is tails. Scotland have won the toss.
Kyle Coetzer: We chose to bat first. The wicket looks good for slow bowling, and we feel we have good ones in our ranks. Batting first we feel would be better as we don't know how the pitch would die out by the chase. It's unfortunate to be out of contention so early but we've clearly underperformed for 3 games now. We are looking for our first win and we need to play well to beat Afghanistan on a spinny wicket. Good that all our batters are still in decent touch. One change in our lineup as well. Stuart Whittingham comes in for Alasdair Evans. We're trying things out now that we can. Hopefully we see a good contest.
Scotland - George Munsey, Kyle Coetzer , Richie Berrington, Calum MacLeod, Matthew Cross , Craig Wallace, Michael Leask, Josh Davey, Mark Watt, Bradley Wheal, Stuart Whittingham
(Alasdair Evans )
Asghar Afghan: We'd be content with chasing. We feel the pitch suits our bowling composition. Rashid, Mujeeb & Nabi will be great on this surface. On that note, we also have 2 changes coming up. Samiullah Shinwari comes in as another spin option and batter in place of Usman Ghani and will bat 7. Aftab Alam did well last game but has a bit of a niggle and hence will be sitting out for precaution. Shapoor Zadran plays his first match today in his place. We are yet to win a match and we are out of qualification contention which is rough. But we still need to play at our best to finish on a high. We are a growing team and we will hopefully reach the top accolades very soon.
Afghanistan: Mohammad Shahzad , Hazratullah Zazai, Asghar Afghan , Gulbadin Naib, Najibullah Zadran, Mohammad Nabi, Samiullah Shinwari , Rashid Khan, Mujeeb ur Rahman, Hamid Hassan, Shapoor Zadran
(Usman Ghani, Aftab Alam )
Scotland won the toss and opt to bat first.
1st Innings
The spin duo of Rashid Khan & Mohammad Nabi shine on a friendly surface, bagging five wickets between their 4 over spells while being responsible for getting the entire Scottish middle-order to go back for cheap. George Munsey played a neat cameo with four boundaries to kick-start Scotland's innings but Hamid Hassan removed both openers before they could do any long-term damage. Calum MacLeod continued his redemption in form, trying to single-handedly rescue the Scotland batting while the spinners wreak havoc on the other end. He couldn't get his fifty; Michael Leask then did his trademark job as finisher in the end to get Scotland to 145. But would it prove enough on this wicket?
Afghanistan need 146 runs to win off 20 overs
@ 7.30 RPO
2nd Innings
Afghanistan's top-order finally steps up in the tournament in an important run chase, and its Hazratullah Zazai who shines brightest with an aggressive 38-ball 63 to streamline the chase. The pair of Shahzad & Zazai seemed to be at their best form today, adding 91 runs to the opening stand in just 8 overs before Shahzad departed just 5 runs shy of fifty. Zazai continued the onslaught to reach his milestone, but was subdued by Berrington once again who found life with his medium pace to get both the openers' wickets today. With only 28 runs to get, it was too late for any Scottish comeback as captain Asghar & Naib steadily cruised home to get Afghanistan their first two points on board.
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, Alex Carey 
)
