The Proteas are seen to be bouncing back with consecutive wins over West Indies and Sri Lanka. They won by eight wickets against the 2016 champions with 10 balls to spare, while against Sri Lanka, they squeezed over the line with one ball remaining to secure a four-wicket win. Stretching back to June 2021, South Africa has won 13 of the past 16 T20Is they’ve played.
In the meanwhile, Bangladesh has lost all three of their Super 12 matches to date and is on the verge of being eliminated along with reeling towards the bottom of the points table. Suffering through heavy defeats in their previous Super 12 encounters, they’ve won just two of their past eight T20Is.
Head to head
When it comes to the head-to-head stats, South Africa is yet to be beaten by Bangladesh. They’ve met six times in T20Is, with the Proteas standing triumphing every time.
They’ve faced each other only once in ICC T20 World Cup tournaments, where South Africa came out victorious on that single occasion.
Players to watch out
South Africa
The man-in-form with the bat for the Proteas, Aiden Markram, is the only player to pass 100 runs in this tournament and started his campaign with knocks of 40 and 51 which included a match-winning contribution against the West Indies.
With the ball for the Proteas, pacer Anrich Nortje has taken five wickets so far, bowling 12 overs with an economy of just 5.16. He has the potential to change things with his express pace.
Bangladesh
Bangladeshi players have played six matches since Round 1 in this World Cup and looking at data, we’ve picked a few players to look out for.
With the bat, it’s Mahmudullah and Mohammad Naim, who have scored 150 and 148 runs respectively for Bangladesh in this tournament, with Naim scoring two fifties. Musfiqur Rahim is next on the list with 143 runs so far.
With the ball, we’ve picked Mahedi Hasan, as he is the leading wicket-taker. Hasan has bowled 22 overs in six innings so far and managed to take away seven wickets with an economy of 5.95. However, he has taken just two wickets in the Super 12 round, and it will be interesting to see how he copes without his spin partner Shakib.
What can we expect?
Hoping to take a step further towards the semi-finals, the Proteas will be hoping to take on Bangladesh in their fourth match in the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2021.
On the other hand, Bangladesh, who are yet to win a single match in Super 12, are already out, as far as their semi-final hopes are concerned. They would look forward to salvaging a bit of pride in the remaining fixtures.
Since the game will be played at Abu Dhabi, and we’ve known that the pitch there remains the most conducive wicket for batters, we expect to see some runs flowing for the batters. Yet, for South Africa, their bowling department remains their biggest strength.
Probable XI
South Africa: Quinton de Kock, Reeza Hendricks, Rassie van der Dussen, Temba Bavuma, Aiden Markram, David Miller, Dwaine Pretorius, Kagiso Rabada, Keshav Maharaj, Anrich Nortje, Tabraiz Shamsi
Bangladesh: Mohammad Naim, Liton Das, Soumya Sarkar, Mushfiqur Rahim, Afif Hossain, Mahmudullah, Nurul Hasan, Mahedi Hasan, Shariful Islam, Mustafizur Rahman, Taskin Ahmed