(Cricket news) South Africa need to win against Bangladesh to keep their semifinals hope alive, Bangladesh on the other hand are out of the tournament and are looking to play for pride. Both the teams have had their fair share of problems, South Africa emerged unscathed after the whole De Kock incident but for Bangladesh things are not looking great as their talisman Shakib Al Hasan is out of the tournament with a hamstring injury.
For South Africa, they are trying to build a can-do culture in the team that involves several players pulling their weight, rather than depending on one or two more superstars. South African batting has revolved around the power hitters as captain Temba Bavuma is among the slowest scorers in the tournament which seems to be having a negative factor on the team. He needs to up his strike rate and lead from the front if South Africa are to make into the top 4. The strength in this South African lineup lies in the bowling, Anrich Nortje’s bristling pace, Shamsi’s rasping spin and Dwaine Pretorius’ coolness under pressure have allowed the opposition guessing and in turn restricted them to a low score.
Bangladesh will be without Shakib Al Hasan which is going to be a major blow for them, having not won a single match in the Super 12’s, Bangladesh need to find a quick fix. Bangladesh need to improve their fielding, in these six games they have dropped nine catches and small moments like these have cost them dearly. Bangladesh batters need to be aware of keeping wickets in hand in the powerplay so that the experienced middle order batsman can end with a flourish. The Bangladeshi spinners have to play a crucial role if they are to contain De Kock, Aiden Markram and David Miller as they will get a lot of assistance from the Abu Dhabi pitch.
Head to head: South Africa 6 – 0 Bangladesh, (1-0 in T20 World Cups)
Pitch and weather report: Abu Dhabi has been a batting friendly pitch as the big boundaries tend to help the batsman convert ones into twos. In this venue two sides have won batting first and two while fielding, spinners again will play an important role in the game. The temperature is going to hover around 35 degrees as there is no chance of rain.
Interesting facts:
- Dwaine Pretorius has taken 10 wickets at an average of 8.2 and a strike rate of 6.4 in the 10.4 overs he has bowled at the death
- David Miller struck five consecutive sixes off Mohammad Saifuddin in a 31-run match in 2017 .
- Mushfiqur Rahim needs 36 runs to become the fourth Bangladesh player to complete 1500 runs in T20I cricket.
- South Africa have won 13 T20Is this year, most by any team
- Mustafizur Rahman has taken 57 wickets in T20 matches in 2021, second-most for any bowler. Only Rashid Khan (64) is above him on this list
Probable XI for South Africa:
1 Quinton de Kock (wk), 2 Reeza Hendricks, 3 Rassie van der Dussen, 4 Temba Bavuma (capt), 5 Aiden Markram, 6 David Miller, 7 Dwaine Pretorius, 8 Kagiso Rabada, 9 Keshav Maharaj, 10 Anrich Nortje, 11 Tabraiz Shamsi
Probable XI for Bangladesh:
1 Mohammad Naim, 2 Soumya Sarkar, 3 Liton Das (wk), 4 Mushfiqur Rahim, 5 Mahmudullah (capt), 6 Afif Hossain, 7 Shamim Hossain, 8 Mahedi Hasan, 9 Shoriful Islam, 10 Taskin Ahmed, 11 Mustafizur Rahman
