South Africa won the toss and chose to bat first against Australia amid overcast conditions at the Eden Gardens, in their semi-final clash of ICC Cricket World Cup 2023 on Thursday, November 16. The winner of this match will face hosts India, who beat New Zealand by 70 runs the previous night, in the final on Sunday. (Match Blog | Scorecard | Streaming | Preview | Key Battles)
South Africa inducted left-arm spinner Tabraiz Shamsi in the XI at the expense of pacer Lungi Ngidi. Australia made two changes, including explosive batter Glenn Maxwell and left-arm pacer Mitchell Starc, and leaving out Marcus Stoinis and Sean Abott.
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RSA captain Temba Bavuma said he was not a hundred percent fit for the match. "We got a message from South Africa's Rugby World Cup-winning team this morning. It means a lot to me and the team, there's a game to focus on. We did speak about the semifinal jinx too but very important to stay in the present. We need to stick to our processes," Bavuma added.
Aussie skipper Pat Cummins said he would have batted first as well. "But it is overcast and hopefully there's some swing early on. We have been in these positions before. We have a lot of experience. We were not up to our best in those couple of games. But the guys have been positive in the last seven games," Starc added.
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The match promises to be a mouthwatering one, given both teams' recent as well as past performances. The Proteas and Aussies have lost just two games each in the nine-match league phase, and seem to be battle-ready for the big one.
Australia lost their first two games but are on a seven-match winning streak, which includes a mind-boggling victory against Afghanistan enabled by Glenn Maxwell's logic-defying double century. South Africa, on the other hand, suffered a crushing 243-run loss at the hands of India in their penultimate league game but bounced back with a comfortable win over the Afghans.
History favours Australia big time, however. They are five-time champions in the showpiece tournament, having won it in 1987, 1999, 2003, 2007 and 2015. What's more, the Aussies have lost just one of the eight ODI World Cup semi-finals they have contested.
Contrastingly, South Africa are known as the perennial underperformers for their dismal track record in the marquee event. Before this year's tournament, the Proteas have qualified for the 50-over World Cup semi-finals four times, but have never progressed beyond. On top of that, they have twice faced agonizingly close defeats against Aussies - in 1999 and 2007.
Playing XIs
South Africa: Quinton de Kock (wk), Temba Bavuma (capt), Rassie van der Dussen, Aiden Markram, Heinrich Klaasen, David Miller, Marco Jansen, Keshav Maharaj, Gerald Coetzee, Kagiso Rabada, Tabraiz Shamsi.
Australia: Travis Head, David Warner, Mitchell Marsh, Steven Smith, Marnus Labuschagne, Josh Inglis (wk), Glenn Maxwell, Pat Cummins (capt), Mitchell Starc, Adam Zampa, Josh Hazlewood.
