Hosts England will face South Africa in the World Cup 2019 opener tomorrow (May 30, 2019) at The Oval. England, who are still in search of their first trophy like South Africa, have risen from the ashes of their poor campaign in the showpiece last time, following that group-stage exit by ascending to the summit of the ICC ODI rankings.
Such has been England’s dominance that their 4-0 whitewash of Pakistan earlier this summer meant the Three Lions haven’t lost a multi-game series for two-and-a-half years. In the warm-up games, England faltered in their first outing losing to fellow title contenders Australia before chalking up an easy win over lesser lights Afghanistan.
South Africa, who are branded as ‘chokers’ due to their failure to make the final despite making the knockouts of every edition they have participated in — barring 2003 when they were also the hosts — the Faf Du Plessis-led side this time have one of the best bowling units of the tournaments but lack depth in their batting. In pacer Rabada, South Africa have one of the best in the business and the wily old fox Imran Tahir also adds variety with his deadly leg-spin.
Expected playing 11
England: Eoin Morgan (c), Jos Buttler (wk), Jason Roy, Jonny Bairstow, Joe Root, Ben Stokes, Liam Plunkett, Jofra Archer, Adil Rashid, Tom Curran, Mark Wood.
South Africa
Quinton de Kock (wk), Faf du Plessis (c), Hashim Amla, Rassie van der Dussen, Jean-Paul Duminy, David Miller, Andile Phehlukwayo, Dwaine Pretorius, Kagiso Rabada, Lungi Ngidi, Imran Tahir.
FPJ’s dream 11: Eoin Morgan, Jos Buttler , Jason Roy, Jonny Bairstow, Quinton de Kock , Faf du Plessis, Hashim Amla, Kagiso Rabada, Lungi Ngidi, Jofra Archer, Ben Stokes
With inputs from IANS