Australia vs South Africa is one of the biggest rivalries in cricket, especially in the World Cup as both sides have met each other six times, playing some of the most memorable matches — including the 1999 World Cup semi-final — and the two sides are set to lock horns in the 10th match of the ICC World Cup 2023 at the Ekana Sports City, Lucknow, India on Thursday.
Following their heavy-margin win in the tournament's opener against Sri Lanka — where they also scored the highest team score in the history of the World Cup — the Proteas would look forward to recording another win to continue their perfect start in the mega event.
All teams have to play nine matches and NRR can come in handy at any time which is why Temba Bavuma's men would do their best to maintain a handsome run rate to avoid losing out on semi-final qualification due to a poor NRR.
The South African batters are in dazzling form as they had three different centurions against the Islanders with Quinton de Kock, Rossie van der Dussen and Aiden Markram lighting up the Arun Jaitley Stadium in Delhi with their explosive batting. Meanwhile, the Australian batters struggled massively to post a good total and were all out for just 199 runs against India on the tricky wicket of Chennai.
However, playing on the rough wicket of Chennai may turn out to be beneficial for Pat Cummins' men as they will play South Africa on Lucknow's wicket, which has historically troubled the batters. Nevertheless, both sides are complete strangers to the playing conditions as the Aussies' all-rounder Glenn Maxwell said: "It’s a bit of an unknown here. It will be a fresh start for the whole ground, turn up on the day and see how it looks. We are prepared for whatever conditions come our way over the next few games.”
Pitch report
The surface in Lucknow in no way supports batters as, during the IPL 2023, it was regarded as the worst pitch of the tournament which led to the sacking of the curator soon after. Since then, four ODIs have been played and the highest total remains 253. Both pace and spin can be successful on Lucknow's pitch. The batters would want to start slowly and build their innings to avoid an early collapse. Choosing to bowl first would be the most suitable decision.
Head-to-Head record
The two sides met one another in the ICC World Cup six times throughout their history and the Aussies lead head-to-head by three victories to their name as compared to the Proteas' two. Meanwhile, their 1999 World Cup semi-final ended in a draw, with Australia proceeding to the final because they had beaten them earlier in the Super Six stage.
Probable Playing XIs
Australia: David Warner, Mitch Marsh, Steve Smith, Marnus Labuschagne, Alex Carey (wk), Glenn Maxwell, Marcus Stoinis, Mitchell Starc, Pat Cummins (c), Josh Hazlewood, Adam Zampa
South Africa: Temba Bavuma (c), Quinton de Kock, Rassie van der Dussen, Aiden Markram, Heinrich Klaasen, David Miller, Marco Jansen, Keshav Maharaj, Kagiso Rabada, Lungi Ngidi, Tabraiz Shamsi