The 2019 Cricket World Cup is officially underway and South Africa, after winning the toss, have decided to choose the strategy of chasing a target by putting England in. Even though there is no cloud cover and the pitch is expected to be as flat as ever, the Proteas feel the strength of the English batting can be better contained by letting them set the target.
The main suspense about the English playing XI was regarding their pace bowling attack. Jofra Archer was certain to start and even Chris Woakes' place was looking safe after he got a five-for in the final ODI against Pakistan. Both were in the playing XI and their companion there is Liam Plunkett. The reason for choosing Plunkett instead of Mark Wood and Tom Curran seems to be his experience and the availability of a few tricks in his arsenal for death-overs bowling.
The Proteas attack has the expected combination of Lungi Ngidi and Kagiso Rabada with the young Dwaine Pretorious coming in. Chris Morris was ruled out due to injury.
The match would witness two exciting leg-spinners in Adil Rashid and Imran Tahir, interestingly, both of Pakistani origin, and the one who is more successful may end up on the winning side. Interestingly, the Proteas have decided to not pick David Miller in their line-up despite his ability to be a great finisher and a power-hitter. Instead, they have chosen both Aiden Markram, former captain who will bat at no. 3 and Rassie van der Dussen, who made a very impressive start to his career.
All we need to do now is to see which bowling attack does better in the game. Since both batting line-ups are great, it will be the bowling that would decide the outcome of the game.
