The opening game of group B and the third game of the Champions Trophy will be played between Afghanistan and South Africa on 21st February in National Bank Stadium Karachi.
Match Preview
South Africa after a disappointing run of 6 consecutive defeats in ODIs including 2 in the Tri nation ODI series which took place in Pakistan will look to bounce back in the champions trophy with their first choice players like Aiden Markarm, David Miller and Marco Jansen returning to the side.
With the game being in Karachi where spin would come into play and Afghanistan being arguably the best spin bowling unit in the event with the likes of Rashid khan, Mohammed Nabi and Noor Ahmad , South Africa will need Henrich klassen who is perhaps the best player of spin in the world and David Miller to step up.
Since 2021 against spin Klassen has scored 624 runs at an average of 48 and 131.9 SR and Miller has scored 499 runs at an average of 83.2 and 107.5 SR.
Afghanistan coming off 4 series wins including a 2-1 series win against South Africa in 2024 will be high on confidence and will look to carry on this momentum in the champions trophy.
Afghanistan will again be heavily reliant on their opening duo of Rahmanullah Gurbaz and Ibrahim Zadran to score the majority of their runs. While the hopes will also be very high from their middle order batter Azmatullah Omarzai who after a stellar ODI world cup in India hasn’t looked back. Since the world cup he has managed to score 417 runs at an average of 52.12 and a SR of 105.57.
South Africa with the partnership of Marco Jansen and Kagiso Rabada will be one of the best new ball bowling units in the competition . South Africa would need them to get early wickets to stop the talented opening duo of Gurbaz and Ibrahim from taking the game away from the saffers.
Probable XIs
South Africa
Tenda Bavuma (c), De Zorzi , Rassie Van Dar Dussen , Aiden Markram , Heinrich Klassen(wk) , David Miller, Wian Mulder, Marco Jansen , Corbin Bosch , Keshav Maharaj , Kagiso Rabada
Afghanistan
Rahmanullah Gurbaz(wk) , Ibrahim Zadran, Rahmat Shah , Hashmatullah Shahdi, Azmatullah Omarzai,Gulbadin Naib , M Nabi , Rashid Khan , Noor Ahmad , Naveed Zadran ,Fazal Farooqi
Head to Head
South Africa and Afghanistan have faced each other in 5 ODIs , out of which South Africa have won 3 and Afghanistan managed to get over the line in the other 2.
Pitch and Weather report
Since 2021 9 games have been played here out of which 5 have been won by teams batting second. The average first innings score has been 285. The pitch is expected to behave somewhat similar to how it did in the opening game of Champions trophy where there was help for spinners specially in second innings with average turn of 4.9 deg. So expect Afghanistan spinners to enjoy the conditions.
Prediction:
It is tough to say who can win this game but given Afghanistan’s series win over Africa in a recent past, the Afghanistan side is favourite to win.
Where to watch:
India: Jio Hotstar,
Pakistan: Myco and Tamasha app
UAE and MENA: STARZPLAY
USA and Canada: Streaming on Willow by Cricbuzz app (Hindi coverage available)
Caribbean: ESPN Play Caribbean app
Australia: PrimeVideo
New Zealand: SkyGo app.
South Africa and sub-Saharan territories: SuperSport and SuperSport App
Bangladesh: Nagorik TV
Afghanistan: ATN
Sri Lanka: Maharaja TV
