Wowza! That is a big miss. Firdose informs that Heinrich Klaasen has been ruled out of today’s match as a precautionary measure due to a left elbow soft tissue injury.
Temba Bavuma: Wickets looks different from how it generally does in Pakistan. Not really sure how it’ll react. We have to assess the wicket, hope to get a good score on the board. We have a lot of confidence in our bowling, consistency has been our strength. Just one spinner today, Shamsi. Tricky to say what a good score.
Hashmatullah Shahidi: If we’d have won the toss, we’d have batted too. Our focus is on how to start well. We played some quality cricket against SA in Sharjah. We have quality spinners, they’ll be important. I will be happy if we start well, and we get early wickets and restrict them going into the middle overs.
Playing XIs
Afghanistan: Rahmanullah Gurbaz (WK), Ibrahim Zadran, Sediqullah Atal, Rahmat Shah, Hashmatullah Shahidi (Capt), Azmatullah Omarzai, Gulbadin Naib, Mohammad Prophet, Rashid Khan, Fazalhaq Farooqi, Noor Ahmad
South Africa: Ryan Rickelton (WK), Tony De Zorzi, Temba Bavuma (Capt), Rassie Van Der Dussen, Aiden Mulder, David Miller, Wiaan Mulder, Marco Jansen, Keshav Maharaj, Kagiso Rabada, Lungi Ngidi
Pitch report: It’s partly cloudy. The wind is picking up and dropping down. The long boundary is 79 down the ground, 62 and 67 square. Dale Steyn says the pitch is hard, has grass but has cracks. They are wide but the pitch is hard enough to ensure that it won’t widen through the day. If the ball lands on the grass though, bowlers will likely get sideways movement. Still might be good to bat on. As the game gets on, there might be variable bounce.
