It’s a do before you die battle for South Africa and Pkaistan when they will play each other on Monday at Birmingham. Meanwhile skipper of South Africa AB De Villiers is banking on Chris Morris who had an impressive IPL with Chennai Super Kings to keep the Proteas in the hunt in the ICC Champions Trophy here.
De Villiers was quoted by Deccan Herald saying, “Chris has impressed us all at the IPL and since last year he's been amazing. He's a guy full of confidence and a guy that we really enjoy having around. He is a fresh guy who can offer a lot to our pace attack as we are not lucky enough to have Morne and Dale who are injured."
He added, "Chances are that Steyn will only be ready for the last one. We're still hanging on to that last little bit of hope that Steyn could wake up tomorrow morning and do a bit of a fitness test and look good for the game."
Meanwhile the recent reports published in DNA was quoted De Villiers saying, "Pakistan obviously have got a world class spinner in Saeed Ajmal, and they're a very good team as well. India have a very strong batting line-up right throughout the order, whereas Pakistan have probably got a stronger bowling attack.”
He went onto say, "We played them in the recent past in South Africa and in the warm up game in London. We know them very well and we're looking forward to the challengetomorrow. We'd like to have wickets in hand towards the last 15 overs."
De Villiers was quoted by Deccan Chronicle saying, "Yesterday in the game between Australia and England, which looks like a similar wicket that we're playing on tomorrow, spinner (James) Tredwell, bowled really well. But I thought it were the seamers that really started reversing the ball there towards the end, there was a bit of swing which really restricted the batters and made them look like they can't get it off the square."
Team selection looks to be more dependent on the conditions here at Birmingham which may push Proteas to go with an extra batsman. But it looks like it’s going to be quartet of pace bowlers who will be leading the charge of this team.