South Africa would be playing for pride, their last match of the tournament and that too against the mighty Australians. These two teams played probably the best ODI of all time, not once but twice (World Cup Semifinal, 1999 and Johannesburg 2006) and fans would be expecting the same again.
Australia would like to win the last game so that they can remain at the top of the points table and face New Zealand in the semis. They have peaked at the right time and won all the matches in this tournament except against India. They look much better on current form and as well as on paper. With both the openers in batting and bowling at their best form of life, it shouldn’t be much difficult for Australia to win the match.
South Africa would be looking to win a match after not able to play up to their expectations in the tournament although they have won the last two games of the tournament but against two weak teams, Afghanistan and Sri Lanka.
South Africa’s best is to win the toss and bat first and put pressure on Australian batsmen to chase a modest total.
Australia v South Africa in ODIs:
Overall: Matches 99, Australia Won 48, South Africa Won 47, Tied 3 No Result 1
World Cup: Matches 5, Australia Won 3, South Africa Won 1, Tied 1
Recent Form (most recent first): Australia W W W W W, South Africa W L L W NR
ICC Rankings: Australia (3), South Africa (5)
Upcoming Records:
Pat Cummins has taken 94 wickets and needs six more to become the seventeenth Australian player to reach the 100 ODI wickets milestone.
Quinton de Kock has scored 4,855 runs and needs 145 more to reach the 5,000 runs milestone.
Dave Warner has scored 4,859 runs and needs 141 more to become the fifteenth Australian to reach the 5,000 runs milestone.
Squads:
Australia: Aaron Finch (capt), Jason Behrendorff, Alex Carey (wk), Nathan Coulter-Nile, Pat Cummins, Usman Khawaja, Nathan Lyon, Shaun Marsh, Glenn Maxwell, Kane Richardson, Steve Smith, Mitchell Starc, Marcus Stoinis, David Warner, Adam Zampa.
South Africa: Faf du Plessis (capt), Hashim Amla, Quinton de Kock (wk), JP Duminy, Beuran Hendricks, Aiden Markram, David Miller, Chris Morris, Lungi Ngidi, Andile Phehlukwayo, Dwaine Pretorius, Kagiso Rabada, Tabraiz Shamsi, Imran Tahir, Rassie van der Dussen.
