Jacques Kallis’ South African champions will face Younis Khan’s Pakistani champions on Tuesday, July 9, in the World Championship of Legends (WCL) 2024. Both teams have had contrasting starts to their campaigns, with South Africa losing all their matches while Pakistan has won all the games they have played.
South Africa started the tournament with a nine-wicket defeat to the English champions. They then suffered a heavy defeat of 104 runs to the Australian champions. In their previous match, South Africa lost to the West Indies champions by six wickets. Meanwhile, Pakistan started the tournament with a five-wicket win over Australia. They then beat the West Indies by 29 runs and in the last match of the tournament, they beat their arch rivals the Indian champions by 68 runs.
Disclaimer: All statistics will be updated until the end of the 10th match of the 2024 WCL
Last 2 games
South African Champion: LLL
Pakistan Champions: WWW
Predicted starting lineups for South Africa and Pakistan
South African favourites to win
batter – Richard Levy, Herschel Gibbs, Ashwell Prince
All-rounder – Jacques Kallis (c), JP Duminy, Justin Ontong, Ryan McLaren
Wicketkeeper – Dane Vilas
bowler – Vernon Philander, Rory Klenveldt, Imran Tahir
Pakistan’s favourites to win
batter: Sohaib Maqsood, Sharjeel Khan, Younis Khan (c), Misbah-ul-Haq
All-rounder: Mohammed Hafeez, Shoaib Malik, Shahid Afridi
Wicketkeeper: Kamran Akmal
bowler: Sohail Tanveer, Syed Ajmal, Wahab Riaz
South African Key Players
Ashwell Prince: He’s South Africa’s leading run-scorer but has not been a standout performer so far in the tournament. Jacques Kallis’s side will be hoping he can build on his form against Pakistan and give the team a much-needed boost with his batting.
Herschelle Gibbs: The hard-hitting South African has only featured in one of the three matches South Africa have played so far – scoring 26 off 19 balls against England. Known for a ruthlessly attacking style of play at the height of his powers, Pakistan’s players will be well aware of the threat Gibbs poses on his good days.
Pakistan’s Key Players
Shahid Afridi: The legendary all-rounder has been productive with the ball, taking five wickets in three matches so far, but not with the batting, Afridi’s weapon that has often led Pakistan to big-game victories. With scores of 11 not out, 16 not out and zero in the three matches he has played, Afridi will be hoping for a good performance against a struggling South African attack.
Sohaib Maqsood: Maqsood has been one of the tournament’s most prolific run-scorers with 158 runs in four matches. He has two half-centuries so far and is batting at 169.89. The top-order batsman will be hoping to maintain his good form against a South African attack that has proved weak so far in the tournament.
Team Battles
This will be the first time that the South African champions will face off against the Pakistani champions in the tournament’s inaugural season.
Venue and pitch
Northampton’s County Ground has hosted eight T20I matches so far and the team batting first on this pitch has had an advantage. The team batting first has won all eight matches at this venue. Northampton’s average score when batting first is 140 and their average score when batting second is 88, which indicates that it is a good pitch for bowlers.
Match Predictions
The outcome is a 50-50 split and the result of the toss will play a key role.
Fantasy XI:
batter – Sohaib Maqsood, Herschel Gibbs, Sharjeel Khan
All-rounder – Shoaib Malik, Jacques Kallis, Shahid Afridi and Mohammed Hafeez
Wicketkeeper – Kamran Akmal
bowler – Imran Tahir, Vernon Philander, Sohail Tanveer
Backup Player:
butter – Sharjeel Khan
bowler – Syed Ajmal
All-rounder – J.P. Duminy
