Pitch Report: Centurion has always been a good batting wicket, and today we might see it actually behave that way, unlike the last two matches here, on a new wicket. Quality bowlers can still thrive.
Toss: Sri Lankan captain Mathews calls heads and it is tails. South Africa have won the toss.
Faf du Plessis: We are going to bat first. It's a good wicket. Always enjoy batting in Centurion. Having a home World Cup helps not only in crowd support but you know the conditions so well, having played here all your life. We started with a great victory, but the games will only get tougher. Every win counts. Sri Lanka are a great side, certainly not to be underestimated. We'll need to continue to put in the hard yards. It'll be great to win in front of the home crowd. We're still going unchanged, so no Steyn yet. Our players have all done well, would be unfair to drop anyone now.
South Africa: Quinton de Kock , Hashim Amla, Faf du Plessis , Jean-Paul Duminy, David Miller, Heinrich Klaasen, Chris Morris, Andile Phehlukwayo, Kagiso Rabada, Lungi Ngidi, Imran Tahir
Angelo Mathews: We'll take that. The wicket seems good to bat on. If we bowl well straight up, the total shouldn't be anywhere out of reach for us. Last game was an exhibition of that, very happy with how the boys played and our bowlers definitely put on their best performance. However South Africa at their home turf are going to be a big challenge, but with our current form we should not let ourselves down. We're going unchanged, we haven't tinkered with our XI at all five games into our tournament, as all our players have done their spot justice. Should be a good contest.
It's yet another brilliant batting performance from Hashim Amla that does it for South Africa today. The opening duo of de Kock & Amla pick up where they left off last game, with a swashbuckling stand of 81 runs in just 7 overs, before the former departed. de Kock missed his fifty by just a run, scoring a lightning fast 23 ball 49- but Amla carried on, scoring 61 in the end which proved to be the backbone of the South African innings. Wickets then fell in quick succession to Pradeep & Thisara Perera, but Morris & Phehlukwayo's 20-ball partnership in the end carried the Proteas to 166. A solid enough score to defend?
Sri Lanka need 167 runs to win off 20 overs
@ 8.35 RPO
2nd Innings
South Africa have done the impossible! Lungi Ngidi and co pull off a stunning comeback to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat in what seemed to be a cakewalk of a chase for Sri Lanka! The opening pair of Gunathilaka & Perera got off to a flyer, both of them reaching their half-centuries in style before Morris & Phehlukwayo managed to get rid of them to stall that bit of momentum. With Perera's wicket, only 40 runs were needed in the last 7 overs- it seemed like a sureshot Sri Lankan win. Until the South African bowling fought back- as Lungi Ngidi came on top with 3 wickets of the middle-order to completely derail the chase, with assistance from the others. Sri Lanka still needed only 7 in the final over, but a masterclass of a last over from Imran Tahir for 4 runs sealed the deal, as the Lankans fell agonizingly short by just two. The crowd erupts- Two in Two for the Home Team!
Pitch Report: The Wanderers pitch has always been batting friendly, and today will be so as well. The wicket is flat with little cracks, with grass on surface.
Toss: Virat Kohli calls tails and it lands on tails. India have won the toss.
Virat Kohli: We're going to bat first on this surface. It looks good, fresh and nice for batting. Certainly better than the last game we played. Think it would be ideal to put a good total on board first and then back our bowlers to defend it. We're playing against the defending champions, they're the ones who knocked us out of the last World T20 in a semi-final at our own home, went onto win, and are coming off a massive win to start this tourney as well. And with the batting ability some of their players have, we've seen in the IPL itself, it's going to be very competitive. We're coming off a win as well, against a long-time rival, it's definitely given us confidence and we know our abilities too. So we'll be going with an unchanged team, this should be a great contest.
Carlos Brathwaite: We started the tournament off well with a chase, so bring it on, we'll hopefully do it again. India are no small opponent, they are extremely consistent and tough to beat, and even as defending champions they might be above us in the favourites order. Our bowlers will need to be at their best, the chase won't be easy. But we bat deep, our all-rounder core is our strength and it will be ever so important for us in a match like today. We're known to have a destructive lineup, but we need to stay composed so we don't get too complacent. Everyone did well last game, so no team changes. We'll be going with the same XI, hopefully it gives us the same kind of result we had last match.
West Indies: Chris Gayle, Evin Lewis, Andre Fletcher , Marlon Samuels, Kieron Pollard, Andre Russell, Dwayne Bravo, Carlos Brathwaite , Sunil Narine, Ashley Nurse, Kesrick Williams
India won the toss and opt to bat first
1st Innings
The pair of Rohit Sharma & Shikhar Dhawan step up for India this match, getting twin fifties to ensure India post a strong total on the board. Rohit takes on the aggressor role as he has always done, while Dhawan steps on the backfoot to anchor at the other end as the Rohit-Dhawan partnership flourishes in it's most typical fashion. Rohit got to his fifty first but got out immediately after, ending a 68-run stand. Kohli & Dhawan then stitch a partnership of another 80 runs till the 16th over to get India well on course to a good score. Bravo removes the pair, but Dhoni comes in to provide the finishing touch in the end- as he always does, to propel India to 179/3. A strong score indeed. But is it enough against the West Indian juggernaut?
West Indies need 180 runs to win off 20 overs
@ 9.00 RPO
2nd Innings
STUMPS CLEAN BOWLED and JASPRIT BUMRAH does the honours for India as they shut down the West Indies' batting giant before the 20th over! The Universe Boss threatened to walk all over the Indian bowling with a destructive innings up top, but what good is it without any support? Courtesy Umesh Yadav and Yuzi Chahal, India constantly picked up wickets at the other end to stay well in the game; and then Krunal spun his magic to get rid of Gayle as well, effectively pulling the match entirely back into India's hands. Russell & Bravo tried to fight back but couldn't stay for long enough- and the incredible Windies batting depth appeared to crumble, as Bumrah finished things off with the last two wickets to close the Windies' innings for just 131. An all-round bowling effort wins another match for India- and it's Umesh Yadav the MOTM Again!
Pitch Report: The Durban Wicket will continue to be green, with grass on surface to assist the pacers more than any of the grounds in the tournament.
Toss: England skipper Eoin Morgan calls tails, and the coin lands on tails. England have won the toss.
Eoin Morgan: We'll bat first once again. Same ground, similar pitch, it's probably a good thing we have another game here on the trot as we were acclimatized to the conditions from the previous game. Certainly a bit tough to bat, but the bowlers do flourish. We had success batting first so we will follow the same template, hopefully by now we are more aware of how the wicket works and how we can exploit in both innings. No opponent is a light opponent. We do have one change in the XI, looking at workload management and rotation, Mark Wood has been rested, and Tom Curran comes into the XI. All our bowlers are capable so this should not hurt us, they're all good players and we hope to get another win today to get things going.
England: Jason Roy, Jos Buttler , Alex Hales, Eoin Morgan , Jonny Bairstow, Ben Stokes, Moeen Ali, David Willey, Tom Curran , Chris Jordan, Adil Rashid
(Mark Wood )
Gary Wilson: Well that was a rough loss last game, tough pill to swallow, especially after coming off a 3 match win streak. Obviously, the Super 12 stage is a lot lot more competitive, West Indies as defending champions were not going to be a straightforward opponent in the slightest. England are another top side, so this will be a very tough game as well. We've beaten them before though, so we can do it again if we rectify the errors of last game- both batting and bowling. No changes to the side, it was one bad loss- the players have all done well before that and we know our best team, so we will be backing them.
Ireland - Paul Stirling, William Porterfield, Andrew Balbirnie, Kevin O'Brien, James Shannon, Gary Wilson , Simi Singh, George Dockrell, Barry McCarthy, Boyd Rankin, Peter Chase
England won the toss and opt to bat first.
1st Innings
It's Jos Buttler who stands out from the English batting performance yet again, not quite as much as last game; He was striking at 200 well on his way to another big score only to be run out ten runs short of fifty. The lack of support from the top-order continued to haunt England, but Ben Stokes & Jonny Bairstow stepped up this time to rescue the innings from being a total collapse. Ireland bowled well throughout to prevent any sort of death overs scoring surge that England would have ideally hoped for- and with a small cameo from Moeen Ali in the end they managed to reach 141. Another sub-par score for a batting lineup of their caliber, but can their bowlers once again pull off a magical defence?
Ireland need 142 runs to win off 20 overs
@ 7.10 RPO
2nd Innings
Death Bowling Masterclass from England yet again as TOM CURRAN blows away Ireland to avert yet another major scare! Ireland started off in the best possible fashion they would have hoped for- an 83 run stand between Stirling & Porterfield well above required run rate. It seemed like the chase was set until Rashid & Jordan removed the pair, and the wickets began to fall in quick succession after. But wait, captain Gary Wilson was not going to let this go into England's hands- five boundaries in a 13-ball 26 would have been the ideal finish in this scenario, but 4 WICKETS from Tom Curran, fresh into this side, repeatedly at the other end destroyed any kind of stability that Wilson would have hoped from the rest of the batting. It's Durban again, it's the England death bowling once again, delivering under pressure to prevent a major upset by the matter of inches!
All the Feed from the First 12 matches of the Super 12 Stage
England closed out the first two rounds of the Super 12 with a nervy win over neighbours Ireland
The Super 12 stage is in full flow as the sides have just completed two rounds in the tournament, with over three to go and totally 18 matches left as the various teams look to strengthen their hold on the semis qualification.
The key dominators are India, New Zealand, England & the hosts South Africa, who have all remained unbeaten in their first two games to start off their tournament in fine fashion. They look strong contenders for the semi finals, but this early in the game, anyone can slip up, but we cannot deny that they have gotten their momentum going.
England & South Africa in particular, need to be wary as they have only played the two lowest ranked group members so far and have much bigger games ahead of them. England, in particular, have had two narrow wins against two relatively lower ranked sides, which raises concern on their preparedness against top teams. Their batting has definitely raised eyebrows, all dependent on Jos Buttler to carry in the two games so far.
Australia, West Indies, Sri Lanka & Pakistan, stand in the middle grounds with one win and one loss so far. The defending champions & the No. 1 ranked T20I team both would have hoped to be faring much better, and have to be consistent if they want to keep that semis hopes alive.
Australia, amidst all their instability have bounced back after a poor first game to win against Scotland, but have a lot of work to do to really push for the Top 2. Defending Champions Windies rolled over Ireland to start but got rolled over by India, raising questions over their competitiveness among the best teams in the group. Pakistan lost to rivals India narrowly but came back beating Zimbabwe, and as the best ranked team in the world, will have high expectations to do better as the group progresses. Sri Lanka, a dark horse, considering they had to qualify from the previous round, have done much better than they would have thought- a comprehensive win over Afghanistan and a loss by whiskers against the hosts- they show they can compete and really contend for the semi-final spot.
The likes of Afghanistan, Zimbabwe, Scotland & Ireland haven't opened up their account in this stage of the tournament, which will be a problem start for them. With 3 games to go, they get into a kind of do-or-die situation to keep semi-final hopes alive. Afghanistan, being the only auto-qualified team among them, would be hoping to do better, after losses against SL & NZ. The other sides, visibly under-dogs in their groups, would at least hope to pull off some upsets and show their big game if they want to go to the next stage of the tournament. They have all had some narrow losses against top sides like England & Australia which shows their potential to stun some teams.
We go into the third round of games with Sri Lanka taking on Australia in Port Elizabeth, as the Super 12 flows into crucial deciding stages in the middle before we gear up for the final countdown to the semi-finals.
Pitch Report: We return to Gqeberha again after the first round games. The pitch is hard, decently batting friendly. Just your regular South African pitch. Pacers thrive, but spinners get help too.
Toss: Australian captain Aaron Finch calls heads and it is tails. Sri Lanka have won the toss.
Angelo Mathews: We'll field first. Looks a good wicket, in decent shape for batting. Might seem to get better as the match progresses, so we want to bowl first on the wicket to see how it shapes up. Obviously, very close loss last game. We've lost two games throughout the tournament and both have been by the margin of whiskers- it's really heart-breaking when you know you should have won that one. Props to South Africa, they played very well under pressure in front of home crowd, which we failed to do. Still 3 games left and we have points on board- this is an important one as Australia are very good opponents and are similarly placed, it won't be easy. We do have a change today. Chandimal goes out, Shanaka comes in. Want to try more options in the batting. Also a slight shift in the order. Hope to see a good game.
Aaron Finch: Good win last game, though shouldn't have let it go that far. We need to be more competitive if we want to make that Semi finals, and we have some big games ahead too, can't underestimate any team. We threw away a decent start against Scotland, it shows we need to do better in all situations in the game. Team news, thankfully AJ Tye is fit and he is back. He comes in for NCN, who has been left out unfortunately. Our middle-order has been an issue, but we know we are playing our strongest side so we will look to back the guys. Hope to get the 2 points, very handy and necessary in this crucial point of our campaign.
Australia: Aaron Finch , D'Arcy Short, Chris Lynn, Glenn Maxwell, Mitchell Marsh, Marcus Stoinis, Alex Carey , Mitchell Starc, Andrew Tye , Kane Richardson, Adam Zampa
(Nathan Coulter-Nile )
Sri Lanka won the toss and opt to bowl first.
1st Innings
A destructive finish at the death from Glenn Maxwell, who finally returns to his best form, complimenting an innings of all-round brilliant batting from the Australian top-order. Aaron Finch was sublime in his striking, getting Australia off to a rocket powerplay start before being dismissed just 1 run short of fifty, in only eighteen balls! D'Arcy Short & Chris Lynn played the most constructive partnership of 80 runs, which spanned over the 10 overs in the middle, and both got to their fifties in fine fashion. Maxwell took on the charge in the death over phase, with Lynn on the other end anchoring, managing to slog boundaries and get Australia past that 200-run mark for the FIRST TIME for any team this tournament. Can the Sri Lankans chase down the biggest total so far, to make the record their own?
Sri Lanka need 208 runs to win off 20 overs
@ 10.40 RPO
2nd Innings
Another match of death-bowling exhibition in the second-innings, and this time it's Kane Richardson who strikes with the crucial wickets at the end-overs in his short spell of 4/16, doing the containing job at the death to close the match out for Australia. All of the bowlers were on song today (maybe bar the all-rounders), with Starc & Tye bowling economical spells up front to get rid of the Sri Lankan top order. Kusal Mendis was the lone warrior, as he stayed till the 16th over, having gotten off to a quite well-struck fifty amidst the instability, giving his side some hope in the chase. But Zampa managed to send him off, and Kane Richardson stepped up to remove the rest of the middle and lower order, gto prevent any sort of death-overs striking and shooting them out for 141. The Australians will be extremely happy with how this has went.
Pitch Report: The Wanderers pitch looks good for batting, and is fresh right now. Flat and a bit of grass on top.
Toss: Pakistan captain Sarfaraz Ahmed calls tails and it is tails. Pakistan have won the toss.
Sarfaraz Ahmed: We are going to bat first here. It looks a good wicket for batting and we can put a score on board. Our bowling has always been our strong point, we will come at it strong in the second innings. Good match, last one, Inshallah boys played well. Ireland are similar opponent but not to be taken lightly so we will still be serious about this. Need wins at this stage to ensure the semis qualification. No team changes we will still go with the same team, Imad still sits out; as everybody has been performing and no need to fix anything that is not broken.
Pakistan: Babar Azam, Fakhar Zaman, Mohammad Hafeez, Shoaib Malik, Sarfaraz Ahmed , Asif Ali, Shadab Khan, Faheem Ashraf, Hasan Ali, Mohammad Amir, Shaheen Afridi
Gary Wilson: Guess we are chasing once again. It's our sixth game and we have chased all five games before, haven't got the chance to put on a score on the board haha. At least we have experience in bowling first, last two games didn't go well in that aspect and we didn't bat quite as well in second innings, need to utilise the conditions to chase whatever they post down. We are also going unchanged, our bowlers have been doing well and our batting is solid, hope to get a win to kick things off finally.
Ireland - Paul Stirling, William Porterfield, Andrew Balbirnie, Kevin O'Brien, James Shannon, Gary Wilson , Simi Singh, George Dockrell, Barry McCarthy, Boyd Rankin, Peter Chase
Pakistan won the toss and opt to bat first.
1st Innings
It's an all-round batting show from Pakistan in Johannesburg that fires all cylinders. Fakhar Zaman gets them off to a quickfire start, but departs for his cameo, to open up a partnership between Babar Azam & Mohammad Hafeez, adding 67 runs in just 7 overs after the dismissal. Both batters fail to convert their knocks to fifties but depart for constructive scores. Captain Sarfaraz also steps up to score a well-struck 31 adding further stability as the innings went on. Asif Ali & Faheem Ashraf provide the final flourish at the death, with over 30 runs coming in the last three overs. Pakistan climb to 175, a score they will be confident of defending, while the Irish have a tough chase coming up.
Ireland need 176 runs to win off 20 overs
@ 8.80 RPO
2nd Innings
Ireland are blown away by the pace of Mohammad Amir today, taking 4 wickets in yet another skillful total defence by the World's Number one T20 side. Ireland get off to a blazing start in the powerplay, despite losing two wickets, they scored over 60 runs, with Porterfield and Stirling taking young Shaheen apart. Hasan Ali got the first two wickets, but Paul Stirling cruised to a fifty as Ireland looked stable before he fell to Amir. Then the wickets fell in a pile, only James Shannon's brief cameo showed any sign of comeback from Ireland- Amir managed four while Shaheen also came back hard at the death to clean up the tail, and Ireland are bowled out for 142, slumping to a third straight loss.
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, Chris Jordan, Adil Rashid
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