England and South Africa will contest the 20th match of the 2023 Cricket World Cup. The reigning champions will go into this match in the wake of defeat to Afghanistan, while the Proteas recently lost to the Netherlands.

England

England have been defeated by New Zealand, beaten Bangladesh and lost to Afghanistan this World Cup. Their attempt at a successful title defence is not off to a promising start. But it’s a long tournament, with each team playing nine fixtures prior to the semi-final stage. England have plenty of time to right their recent wrongs, starting here.

They won’t likely be as troubled against spin against South Africa as they were against Afghanistan. But it’s the Proteas’ fast bowlers that could pose a challenge in conducive conditions. Dawid Malan, Joe Root and Harry Brook are the only England batters to score 100 runs or more this tournament. The rest need to start delivering as well.

Bowling-wise, Reece Topley and Adil Rashid have been in solid form individually and collectively. The combination of left-arm seam with right-arm wrist spin might be deployed again. There is also the outright pace of Mark Wood for England to use well against the South Africans.

England have a big opportunity to outplay a Proteas team still smarting from defeat to the Dutch. Jos Buttler and company are evidently under the pump, but a convincing win here could do enough to keep them among the genuine title contenders this World Cup.

South Africa

The Proteas, rather characteristically, put in dominant performances against Sri Lanka and Australia – and then lost heavily against the Netherlands. South Africa are perennial underachievers at Cricket World Cups and need to quickly rekindle the promise displayed at the start of this one.

The decision to play Gerald Coetzee ahead of Tabraiz Shamsi against the Dutch did not work for South Africa. They might revert to the spinner ahead of the seamer for this match. While some pundits reckon fielding an extra batter is the way forward, it’s unlikely SA will look to Reeza Hendricks at this juncture.

Aiden Markram and Quinton de Kock are evidently South Africa’s most in-form batters at this tournament. De Kock has 229 runs to Markram’s 163. The Proteas can lean on these two for more of the same, but like England with Malan and Brook, others need to step up in support.

This is an enormously important fixture for South Africa. Lose again and they’ll likely be written off for the rest of the tournament. Win and they can show that the loss to the Netherlands was a mere speed bump en route to bigger goals. The pressure is certainly on both teams, but perhaps more for the Proteas.