Pakistan vs South Africa Cricket World Cup 2023: Expected lineups, head-to-head, toss, predictions and betting odds
Pakistan will take on South Africa in the teams' sixth match of the 2023 World Cup at the MA Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai on Friday, 27 October.
Pakistan started their World Cup campaign with consecutive wins over Netherlands and Sri Lanka. However, their form has been patchy since then, as they lost to arch-rivals India before being defeated by Australia and suffering an upset loss to Afghanistan. Their tournament is in danger of unravelling quickly.
By contrast, South Africa have been one of the most impressive teams in the tournament, with their batters blowing opposition teams away. Barring a shock loss to the Netherlands, the Proteas have won their other four matches by margins of 102, 134, 229 and 149 runs against Sri Lanka, Australia, England and Bangladesh respectively. They will be looking to seal a top four spot at the earliest opportunity.
Pakistan vs South Africa: Predicted line-up
PredictedXIforPakistan: Abdullah Shafique, Imam-ul-Haq, Babar Azam (c), Mohammad Rizwan (wk), Saud Shakeel, Iftikhar Ahmed, Shadab Khan, Usama Mir, Shaheen Shah Afridi, Hasan Ali, Haris Rauf.
PredictedXIforSouth Africa: Quinton de Kock (wk), Temba Bavuma (c), Rassie van der Dussen, Aiden Markram, Heinrich Klaasen, David Miller, Marco Jansen, Kagiso Rabada, Lungi Ngidi, Keshav Maharaj, Gerald Coetzee/Tabraiz Shamsi.
Pakistan vs South Africa: Head-to-head in ODIs
Pakistan have played South Africa 82 times, winning on 30 occasions.
Pakistan vs South Africa: Toss
The toss will be at 1:30 PM. The pitch at the MA Chidambaram Stadium has favoured spinners, but fluent run-scoring is possible if the batters have some patience. Three out of four games at the World Cup here have been won by the chasing side.
Pakistan vs South Africa: Weather forecast in Chennai
The weather forecast for tomorrow in Chennai suggests a high of 32 degrees Celsius in the afternoon and a low of 29 degrees Celsius in the evening. No rain is predicted, but the humidity is predicted to be high as usual, around 70-80%.
Pakistan vs South Africa: Prediction for CWC 2023 match
Since the loss to Afghanistan in Chennai, the mood around Pakistan cricket has been extremely negative, with the team's tournament in danger of coming apart swiftly. If they are to stay in the tournament, their bowlers will need to start pulling their weight more.
If the pitch on Friday is relatively slow, it will be interesting to see if South Africa can score as freely as they have been. If Pakistan are able to keep the batters quiet (which is a big if), there could be a victory for the taking. For now though, South Africa remain firm favourites.
Pakistan vs South Africa: Betting odds for CWC 2023 match
The Dafabet odds predict a South Africa win.
