England captain Andrew Strauss won the toss and decided to bat first in their vital Champions Trophy match against South Africa at SuperSport Park in Centurion on Sunday.
It is South Africa’s final Group B match and it is imperative that they win if they are to have any chance of progressing to the semi-finals.
The home side have recalled stalwart opening batsman Herschelle Gibbs, now over his rib muscle strain, to the starting line-up in place of Hashim Amla.
England have been forced to make one change to the side that opened their campaign with a win over Sri Lanka at the Wanderers on Friday. South African-born wicketkeeper Matt Prior is unable to play due to illness and has been replaced by Ravi Bopara.
Eoin Morgan will move behind the stumps to take over the wicketkeeping duties.
England, having batted first posted a formidable 323 / 8 after their 50 overs, leaving SA to score 324 for a win at 6.48 runs per over.
SA batted and fell short by 22 runs, scoring 301 / 9 after 50 overs, effecrively ending their competition.
Teams:
South Africa – Graeme Smith, Herschelle Gibbs, Jacques Kallis, AB de Villiers, JP Duminy, Mark Boucher, Albie Morkel, Johan Botha, Roelof van der Merwe, Wayne Parnell, Dale Steyn.
England – Andrew Strauss, Joe Denly, Owais Shah, Paul Collingwood, Eoin Morgan, Ravi Bopara, Luke Wright, Stuart Broad, Graeme Swann, James Anderson, Graham Onions.
Click here for live score updates.
@K9-MonsterLeeu – Yeah true, but also that last guy who scored almost 2 runs per ball made a big leap forward at the end of their innings.
They deserve their win. And not allowing GS a runner was in the rules. Imagine what would have happened to Straus if he gave the game away by allowing GS a runner.
Good night now
@carol – 599
Well done to England Carol.
Think we got it really wrong in the first game against Sri-Lanka when we won the toss. Should have batted there first and we would probably have won that one and into the semi. Now we crash out on home soil. Not nice for the our supporters.
Anyhows well done to GS. He batted well.
bloody chockers!!!
:reallypissed:
@Ashley – 604
haha. Ja, Proteas just when you think they should do it they let you down feel really :pissedoff:
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