England v South Africa: Cricket World Cup 2023 – live | Cricket World Cup 2023
Key events
South Africa XI
South Africa: Quinton de Kock (wk), Reeza Hendricks, Rassie van der Dussen, Aiden Markram (c), Heinrich Klaasen, David Miller, Marco Jansen, Gerald Cetzee, Keshav Maharaj, Kagiso Rabada, Lungi Ngidi
England XI
England: Jonny Bairstow, Dawid Malan, Joe Root, Ben Stokes, Harry Brook, Jos Buttler (c, wk), David Willey, Adil Rashid, Gus Atkinson, Mark Wood, Reece Topley.
Aiden Markram stands in as South Africa’s captain as Temba Bavuma is ill. Reeza Hendricks comes in at the top of the order and that is the only change.
England win the toss and will bowl!
“This is generally a good ground for chasing,” says a smiling Jos Buttler in royal blue. “We’re very forward facing, trying to impose ourselves on this game.” Three changes – Stokes, Willey and Atkinson in for Chris Woakes, Sam Curran and Liam Livingstone.
Ian Ward and Kate Cross are in the middle with the microphones, the sun is out, the bottom tiers of each stands look pretty full. We wait for the toss.
Preamble
Good morning! The round robin stage of this tournament shuffles towards half way – this is the final fourth round match – with just another five rounds to go before the knock-out begins.
Today we’re in Mumbai, where England, buoyed by the return of Ben Stokes, take on South Africa in the big battle of the chasing pack. South Africa have two victories under their belt – thrashing Australia and Sri Lanka before slipping on the Netherlands banana skin, another win and they’d be clear of Pakistan and Australia in third. England, the holders, the mighty demigods, the big beasts, have only a victory against Bangladesh to show for their efforts, after coming a cropper to Afghanistan and New Zealand. With Australia thrashing Pakistan on Friday, they can’t afford to stall again.
Earlier this week, England white ball coach Matthew Mott said that getting off to a flyer “can be a bit of a curse,” but they need to beat South Africa unless they want to spend the next few weeks trudging hopelessly around India. He has promised only “minor tweaks” so expect Stokes to return for either Brook or Livingstone and Chris Woakes, who has looked out of sorts, to possibly return to the bench.
Play starts at 9.30 am, see you here for the toss.
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