South Africa’s in-form fast bowlers vs India’s in-form batsmen and a bouncy Perth pitch at the optus stadium. Forget the cameras, forget the points table, forget the world cup. This should be a delight to watch if you are a cricket fan. There aren’t many things you’d want to miss about this game. Yes, we know that there is a world cup going on and both these teams are the favourites to qualify from this group, but if you look at this from just proper cricketing sense, there is quality cricket written all over this game.
After their brilliant performance against Pakistan and the dominance they showed against Netherlands, India will be coming into this game as favourites with a little confidence. The way Virat Kohli has performed in both the games in this world cup will give the men in blue a lot of confidence as vintage virat is back.
The bowlers too have been bowling really well and they will no doubt be tested on this tricky Perth track when they have to bowl to South African batsmen who know how to play on wickets like these.
South Africa on the other hand will not be too worried either. After the first game being washed out against Zimbabwe, they have literally dominated Bangladesh when they score more than 200 on a difficult SCG wicket.
Now, if Zimbabwe lose to Bangladesh, this match becomes all the more important as South Africa will feel the heat to beat team India. Because if they cannot, they will then have a do or die encounter against Pakistan who will be looking at this match very closely.
India vs South Africa – Optus Stadium Perth – Pitch Report
The pitch at the Optus Stadium is a bouncy and a juicy wicket. Even though it is not the typical WACA wicket, it still has the same pace and bounce as a traditional one. In the few games that have been played here, it has been one hell of a wicket for the batsmen and should continue to do so. This is a game that will be won more by bowlers than by batsmen. South Africa will be feeling like the more confident side coming
IND vs SA Probable Playing XI
India’s Probable XI:
Rohit Sharma (c), KL Rahul, Virat Kohli, Suryakumar Yadav, Hardik Pandya, Dinesh Karthik (wk), Axar Patel, Ravichandran Ashwin, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Mohammed Shami, Arshdeep Singh
South Africa’s Probable XI: Quinton de Kock (wk), Temba Bavuma (c), Rilee Rossouw, Aiden Markram, Tristan Stubbs, David Miller, Wayne Parnell, Keshav Maharaj, Kagiso Rabada, Anrich Nortje, Tabraiz Shamsi/Lungi Ngidi/Marco Jansen
