Australia vs South Africa (AUS vs SA), ICC Cricket World Cup 2019 ODI Match at Manchester Latest Updates: OUT! Lyon is caught by Markram off Phehlukwayo's bowling and that is the end of the match. Australia will finish the group stage in second place, meaning they will take on England and India will face New Zealand. Thats your semi-final line-up.
Australia vs South Africa in the ICC World Cup 2019 on July 6th (Saturday) will be broadcast on the Star Sports network and Live streaming will be available on Hotstar. The match will be played at the Old Trafford in Manchester and will begin at 1800 HRS IST. You can also follow all the action on our live blog (AUS vs SA).
"For this game, some people said it was a dead rubber. There's nothing dead about it." - These were Australia head coach Justin Langer's words when asked if his side were in any way taking the final group game against South Africa lightly now that they have made it to the semi-finals. There is much more at stake than this just being a dead rubber for Australia. They are currently table toppers and a win will guarantee them of a top finish which means they will in all likelihood face New Zealand in the semi-finals, something they won't mind at all considering how much they dominated their neighbours in the group game. Australia have played like a champion team and barring the game against India, which they lost while chasing a total in excess of 350, they have dominated all the games and have looked in great touch.
The biggest strength of Australia in this World Cup has been the batting performance of the top three, especially skipper Aaron Finch and David Warner, who are there among the top-10 run-getters in the tournament so far. Mitchell Starc and Pat Cummins have been fiery with the ball not just for the opposition but also their own teammates. A Cummins bouncer ruled Shaun Marsh out of the tournament, while Starc had Glenn Maxwell in a bit of strife in the nets though the all-rounder is declared fit for the final group game. Starc has been exemplary so far this tournament. He is comfortably the leading wicket-taker with 24 scalps in eight outings which includes two five-wicket hauls and he does not seem to be slowing down. There were talks of him possibly being rested for the South Africa clash but all such rumours have been quashed by Langer.
It sure has been an all-round show from Australia and they will not want any slip-ups going into the semi-finals. South Africa, on the other hand, have had a rather underwhelming campaign one they will want to forget as soon as possible. But Australia is one team they have done well in the recent past and will want to bow out on a high and salvage some pride. Their batting, which relies highly on the likes of Faf du Plessis, Hashim Amla and Quinton de Kock, has not been consistent, leading to them being knocked out of the competition in the group stage itself. South Africa's bowling has also not been up to the mark with leading pacer Kagiso Rabada failing to live up to the expectations. They have five points from eight games but will want to finish well. This will also be the last game for Imran Tahir in South African ODI colours and he will hope he has a good outing one final time.
"As a team, we need to think about finishing on a good note," he said. "But it makes me feel very sad and emotional that I'm going to leave," Tahir said ahead of the game. "It was always my dream to play international cricket and I'm really grateful to everyone who helped me along on the way. They accepted me for who I was, the guy who came from overseas."