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USA vs South Africa- T20 World Cup Super Eight: Teams, pitch, weather, form

USA will look to build on their success and cause another upset against favourites South Africa at North Sound, Antigua.

The USA will hope to carry their momentum into the Super Eight matches after progressing ahead of former champions Pakistan [File: Adam Hunger/AP]

Who: USA vs South Africa
What: ICC T20 World Cup Super Eights
When: Wednesday, June 19, 10:30am (14:30 GMT)
Where: Sir Vivian Richards Stadium, North Sound, Antigua and Barbuda
How to follow: Al Jazeera’s live coverage begins at 11:30 GMT

The Super Eight stage of the T20 World Cup opens with an unexpected competitor.

Keep reading

list of 4 items

list 1 of 4

From format to match-ups: All to know about the T20 World Cup Super Eights

list 2 of 4

Meet Team USA – the unexpected darlings of the T20 World Cup

list 3 of 4

‘Go USA!’: How a winning home team could help convert Americans to cricket

list 4 of 4

The Take: The biggest rivalry in sports – India and Pakistan in cricket

end of list

Team USA have entered the Caribbean leg of the tournament as a surprise package and are determined not to bow out any time soon.

“We are not going to go down without a fight,” coach Stuart Law told Al Jazeera after the USA’s qualification for the Super Eights was confirmed.

The diverse USA squad includes two players of Caribbean origin who have played the game in the region in the past, and one of them, Aaron Jones, believes his side will get good support from the crowd in the West Indies.

“Me and Steven [Taylor] have a lot of support in the Caribbean, so we will definitely have some support tomorrow,” Jones said on Tuesday in his pre-match news conference.

The USA vice captain, who hit the joint highest number of sixes (13) in the group stage, said his team are excited to rub shoulders with the biggest sides in the world.

“The boys are excited to play against the best teams in the world. We wanted to do that. We’ve been speaking about that over the last couple of years. And here we are now, so we’re just going to enjoy our cricket and, as I said, play fearless cricket all the time.”

South Africa will be wary of the threat the Americans pose, and captain Aiden Markram agreed that his side will have to “be on their best game” against the co-hosts in Wednesday’s game.

“A lot of the people will say [the USA are one of the] smaller nations, but they are not, and they have proved it,” Markram told reporters.

With the Super Eight games spread across multiple venues in the Caribbean, Markram said it will be vital for his side to gather as much information as they can about each ground.

Pitch condition

The Antigua pitch has produced a mix of low- and high-scoring matches, but conditions remain favourable for batting, and the pitch is vastly different from the one in New York, where all team struggled to score.

There will still be some assistance for bowlers, especially wrist spinners and bowlers with high accuracy and control.

Weather forecast

The forecast for this week is cloudy and humid with negligible chances of rain.

Head-to-head

The teams have never met in any format of the game.

Form guide

While the USA lost their last completed match of the tournament against India, they would have gained confidence from their competitive display against the South Asian powerhouse. The debutants showed plenty of grit and control in their historic super over win against Pakistan.

South Africa are one of the four unbeaten sides in the tournament so far, but were nearly at the receiving end of a huge upset against Nepal in their last group match.

USA: L W W L W
South Africa: W W W W L

USA team news

The USA will welcome back their captain, Monank Patel, who missed the match against India, and left-arm spinner Nosthush Kenjige, who showed plenty of control with the ball against Pakistan.

Squad: Monank Patel (captain), Shayan Jahangir, Aaron Jones, Andries Gous, Nitish Kumar, Steven Taylor, Harmeet Singh, Corey Anderson, Milind Kumar, Nisarg Patel, Shadley van Schalkwyk, Ali Khan, Jessy Singh, Saurabh Netravalkar, Nosthush Kenjige

South Africa team news

The Proteas may look to play two spinners and call up the wily Keshav Maharaj in place of one of their three pace bowlers.

Squad: Markram (captain), Quinton de Kock, Reeza Hendricks, Heinrich Klaasen, David Miller, Ryan Rickelton, Tristan Stubbs, Marco Jansen, Ottneil Baartman, Gerald Coetzee, Maharaj, Bjorn Fortuin, Anrich Nortje, Kagiso Rabada, Tabraiz Shamsi

Source: Al Jazeera

Credit by aljazeera
This post was first published on aljazeera, we have published it via RSS feed courtesy of aljazeera

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