The second set of matches at the ICC Cricket World Cup 2023 concludes on Thursday when the tournament heads to Lucknow for the first time for the clash between familiar foes Australia and South Africa.
These two teams will know each other very well after playing a five-match ODI series in the lead up to the tournament. South Africa won that series from 2-0 down and go into this battle in better shape in the competition after the opening set of matches.
Australia
It was not a good start to the tournament for Australia as they were comfortably beaten by the hosts India. To be fair to Australia, the conditions in Chennai were never going to favour them and they will be hoping that the pitch in Lucknow is much more to their liking. To be fair to Australia, they battled hard in the opening game and even though they couldn’t get on top when they had the bat in hand, they almost opened the door up for a chance at winning the match.
They took three early wickets and were probably one scalp away from really forcing the door open but they ran into two shrewd Indian batters who saw the game out well. Australia will know they need a much better performance in this match but if the conditions are as they expect that should come naturally. There is probably natural improvement in them anyway when you consider that some key players were playing their first competitive game in a while in that opener.
South Africa
After a couple of matches of that ODI series with Australia last month, South Africa looked like they were heading into the World Cup in ordinary form and with a lot to prove. Three wins later and they arrived high in confidence and an emphatic opening win in Delhi on Saturday where they broke all kinds of records has suddenly fired them into the consciousness of plenty who have upgraded them as at least a dark horse if not one of the favourites.
I’m still not convinced that South Africa have the bowling unit to win this competition without Anrich Nortje but we saw against Sri Lanka that all of a sudden they have the batting that can really do some damage in this tournament. That will take the pressure off the bowlers but you do wonder if they will be able to defend scores regularly in this event, especially when we get to the grounds where the pitches are flat and the boundaries are small. This game might give us more of an indication of whether they can or not.
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Team News
Marcus Stoinis was unable to bowl in the previous game so he was left out to be able to recover fully. He is now available and is expected to come in on what was his home ground in the IPL earlier in the year. Cameron Green is likely to miss out.
There is no need for South Africa to make any changes to the side which did a demolition job on Sri Lanka in their first game although they might consider bringing a second spinner in should conditions dictate that. Tabraiz Shamsi would replace Gerald Coetzee in that situation.
Betting
When the Indian Premier League was at this ground earlier in the year we had to endure a number of cabbage patches but the square was dug up after that tournament and relaid ahead of this one. The consensus seems to be that we are going to get plenty of pace and bounce here now and so if that is the case then I’m expecting a high scoring match. We saw five of those between these two in South Africa and the approach of both teams hasn’t changed since then.
When we did get the odd good pitch here in the IPL and when we did the sixes flowed on a small ground and the scores were on the higher side so if the talk about there being pace and bounce in this track rings true then I expect the boundaries to flow regularly throughout this match. Neither team have a particularly strong spinner in their ranks and there are no more than two gun bowlers in the ranks of either too. That makes me think the boundaries will come regularly and a 63.5 boundary line might not be high enough.
Tips
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