The first semi final of the ICC Champions Trophy is being played between England and South Africa at Kennington Oval, London Wednesday morning today.
While England came across more than convincing with their performance by topping the Group A, South Africa have diligently worked their way through Group B to make the semifinals cut - they are behind India in Group B.
England will try to cash on ther excellent bowling performance of James Anderson, who scalped eight wickets in three matches with 3/30 as his best figures in the tournament.
However, South African all-rounder Ryan McLaren is not far behind Anderson with eight wickets in three matches with 4/19 as his best bowling figures for the Proteas. But, with the return of their pace spearhead Dale Steyn into the squad, AB de Villiers' men pose a serious threat to the hosts.
As for the stats on British soil, England lead 12-7 in the head-to-head stakes. The one-day series last summer was tied 2-2, with England winning a low-scoring game at The Oval. This is one of only three Test-playing countries - New Zealand and Sri Lanka are the others - where South Africa have a losing record (16-17).
The likely opposing squads are as under:
England squadAN Cook*, JM Anderson, JM Bairstow, IR Bell, RS Bopara, TT Bresnan, SCJ Broad, JC Buttler†, ST Finn, EJG Morgan, JE Root, GP Swann, JC Tredwell, IJL Trott, CR Woakes
South Africa squadAB de Villiers*†, HM Amla, F Behardien, JP Duminy, F du Plessis, CA Ingram, RK Kleinveldt, R McLaren, DA Miller, CH Morris, AN Petersen, RJ Peterson, AM Phangiso, DW Steyn, LL Tsotsobe
Umpires HDPK Dharmasena and RJ Tucker
The match is scheduled on
Wednesday, 19 June (09:30 GMT) | at Kennington Oval, London.
If you are one of the fans located at different destination and miss the chance to visit the stadium to watch your favorite team, You can now watch the match live on your laptop or desktop computer, FREE, provided you have an internet connection, from the links given below: