Big Picture: The game some didn’t want SA to play
Group B of the Champions Trophy gets underway with a fixture between the dream side of the last two tournaments, Afghanistan, and the one which has nightmares about the number of times it has not got its hands on the trophy, South Africa.
Afghanistan will make their Champions Trophy bow on the back of strong performances at the 2023 ODI World Cup, where they narrowly missed out on a semi-final spot, and an impressive run in the format since then. They have won four out of five bilateral series, (albeit two of those against Ireland and Zimbabwe, who are not at this tournament) and reached the T20 World Cup semi-final in-between. A short, sharp event like this one presents them with a stunning opportunity to swoop in and claim a major tournament title. Imagine if they do it before South Africa?
Related
Shahidi: ‘Not here to just participate, we want to win the title’
-
For Maharaj, it’s about ‘building pressure, limiting boundary balls’
-
Does sanctioning the men’s cricket team help Afghan women?
To be fair to South Africa they have in fact won the Champions Trophy before – in its inaugural edition in 1998, when it was called the ICC Knockout and played in as cut-throat a structure as it gets. Like it says it on the tin: lose a game, and you’re out. Then, South Africa managed to win all three. This time, to win the cup, teams will have to play five matches and they can even afford a slip up (but probably only one). South Africa’s issue is that recently they have stumbled much more.
They’ve lost three of their four bilateral ODI series since the last World Cup including their last six ODIs but that record isn’t weighing on them. They’ve used ODIs as a development exercise, and have capped 10 new players since the 2023 ODI World Cup. For the first time since that, they have their best available players together and as they showed at last year’s T20 World Cup, where they reached the final, when they’re at full-strength, they are stronger than many expect.
Headlining both outfits are explosive batting line-ups, with Afghanistan’s power at the top in an opening pair of Ibrahim Zadran and Rahmanullah Gurbaz and South Africa’s in the middle order. That makes the match-ups between South Africa’s seamers and the Afghan top order and Afghanistan’s spinners and the South African middle order the ones to watch for.
It would be amiss to preview this fixture without noting that if was up to South Africa’s sports minister Gayton McKenzie, this match would not be happening at all. He compared the Taliban regime’s treatment of women to Apartheid and said it would be “hypocritical and immoral” to look the other way. But Cricket South Africa disagrees and has both sough out bilateral fixtures against Afghanistan – their September 2024 series was not on the FTP – and explained why it doesn’t think shunning Afghanistan will lead to meaningful change.
This is a narrative that will only get stronger through the tournament as Afghanistan’s next two opponents. England and Australia, also face internal pressure to not play against them but confirmed the fixtures will go ahead. The Afghanistan team is caught in the crossfire and captain Hashmatullah Shahidi brought out the old “we can only control… the controllable things”, but their presence keeps the conversation going.
Form guide
South Africa: LLLLL (last five completed matches, most recent first)
Afghanistan: WWWLW
In the spotlight: South Africa’s experience and Afghanistan’s spinners
South Africa’s white-ball coach Rob Walter’s big-players-will-step-up-for-big-occasions mantra will be put to the test at this tournament with David Miller and Kagiso Rabada in full focus. They are only two members of the squad with more than 100 ODI caps to their names and are seen as the leaders of the line-up and attack respectively. While Miller has the advantage of a strong top-order to lay the foundations the innings, Rabada has the task of being the spearhead of a pack that can expect conditions to be difficult for them. They’ll both be expected to have cool heads and provide wise counsel as South Africa attempt to take home silverware.
Afghanistan have the advantage of recent experience against South Africa thanks to the number of players who were part of the SA20, and Noor Ahmed and Rashid Khan enjoyed the most success. They were the highest wicket-takers for their respective franchises (Noor for Durban Super Giants and Rashid joint-highest with Rabada for MI Cape Town). While South Africa’s overall approach to spin is much-improved in recent years, they still have a habit of getting themselves tangled up and Afghanistan will hope to exploit that through two of their best.
Team news
South Africa could be forced to bench both Ryan Rickelton and Tristan Stubbs in what is an already strong batting line-up. Aiden Markram’s more-than-part-time offspin means they may consider only one specialist spinner in Keshav Maharaj, which will create room for both seam bowling allrounders – Wiaan Mulder and Marco Jansen – and two other frontline quicks.
South Africa (possible): 1 Temba Bavuma (capt) 2 Tony de Zorzi, 3 Rassie van der Dussen, 4 Aiden Markram, 5 Heinrich Klaasen (wk), 6 David Miller, 7 Wiaan Mulder, 8 Marco Jansen, 9 Corbin Bosch, 10 Keshav Maharaj 11 Kagiso Rabada
Ibrahim Zadran will return to the Afghan XI after last playing for them in March. He has been out with an ankle injury but has had some time at the crease in the ILT20. With AM Ghazanfar out with a back problem, they will have to choose between left-arm wristspinner Noor Ahmed, who had success at the SA20, and left-arm fingerspinner Nangeyalia Kharote. That would give them a variety of spin options, alongside Rashid Khan and Mohammad Nabi in the team and four seam bowlers to boot.
Afghanistan: (possible) 1 Ibrahim Zadran, 2 Rahmanullah Gurbaz (wk), 3 Rahmat Shah, 4 Hashmatullah Shahidi (capt), 5 Azmatullah Omarzai, 6 Gulbadin Naib, 7 Mohammad Nabi, 8 Rashid Khan, 9 Noor Ahmad/Nangeyalia Kharote, 10 Naveed Zadran, 11 Fazalhaq Farooqi
Pitch and conditions
Karachi has been providing plenty of runs, with New Zealand scoring 320 in the tournament opener on Wednesday and Pakistan completing their highest successful ODI chase at the venue – 353 – against South Africa in the mini tri-series last week. Word is that more of the same is expected. South Africa’s attack, especially their spinners, have spoken about honing their defensive strategies, which suggests they’re preparing for a high-scoring encounter in which the batters will have the opportunity to make big statements. They won’t be the only ones doing that. Afghanistan expect the match to be like a home game for them, with a significant expat population in Karachi.
Stats and trivia
- Afghanistan have won their last four ODI series, including against South Africa in September last year in Sharjah. South Africa (currently fifth) are the highest ranked team Afghanistan have achieved a series win over. However, South Africa did not field a full strength side for that series.
- Rashid Khan has taken nine wickets in four ODIs against South Africa, at an average of 14.55. Though seven of those came during the above mentioned series, of the South Africa batters who are in their Champions Trophy squad, Rashid has six wickets at 10.67 at an economy of 3.46 since January 2023.
- In ODIs, Heinrich Klaasen has the best strike rate by a South African batter who has scored a minimum of 1,000 runs in the format and the third-best among all batters with that cutoff.
Quotes
“Just recently we beat them in Sharjah 2-1, so we have that confidence with us and we are not under pressure. Right now we are focusing on what we can do in this tournament. I believe that our team is more ready for this tournament and we are focusing on our own team. There is no pressure on us.”
Afghanistan captain Hashmatullah Shahidi responds to questions on his side being underdogs against a side they have only met five times and beaten twice
“Like all the tournaments, we will come in with the prospect of seeing ourselves in the final but eventually obviously getting over the line. The nice thing is that we have guys with that experience and there’s no there’s no real baggage that exists amongst the guys. There’s no negativity from the fact that we haven’t been able to be successful in other ICC events. There’s a lot more of a positivity and confidence in terms of our ability or how far we can go within the tournament.”
Temba Bavuma says South Africa do not carry scars from previous tournaments into this one
