Cricket Tips
Any Player to Score a 50? No
Kagiso Rabada & Rashid Khan to take 2+ wickets each
Thursday 1.30am: South Africa v Afghanistan
T20 World Cup semi final at Brian Lara Cricket Academy, Trinidad & Tobago
TV: Sky Sports Main Event and Sky Sports Cricket
Any Player to Score a 50? No
In the four matches at this ground so far in the tournament there has only been one score of 50 or over, Sherfane Rutherford’s knock for the West Indies against New Zealand.
The previous scores at The Brian Lara Stadium (1st innings average of just 90.5 in the four matches) suggest that this could be a low-scoring thriller.
Despite their 100% record at the tournament this year, South Africa’s top order have largely struggled to get going with only Quinton de Kock (two) and David Miller making 50s in the seven matches the Proteas have played so far.
For Afghanistan, much will depend on the in-form openers Rahmanullah Gurbaz and Ibrahim Zadran who have been magnificent so far.
The South African bowling attack on this tough scoring wicket will provide a more difficult challenge to them though and I fancy nobody to pass 50 runs.
Rabada & Khan to take 2+ wickets each
Experience counts for plenty in semi-finals and Kagisho Rabada and Rashid Khan are likely to use this to their advantage at a ground that has been heavily in favour of the bowlers at this year’s World Cup.
We can expect there to be plenty of wickets in this match, as has been the case throughout the tournament, with the Tarouba ground averaging a wicket nearly every 14 balls.
Rashid has taken eight wickets in his last three outings and has 14 from seven matches in the 2024 tournament. His overall T20I record is outstanding (152 wickets in 92 matches at a strike rate of 13.9 balls/wicket).
Rabada hasn’t had his best tournament (10 wickets) but he has taken six in his last three matches and is arguably the best suited South African bowler for the likely conditions in Trinidad and Tobago.
He’s only played one T20I match against Afghanistan before but picked up two wickets on that occasion and will fancy himself against an erratic Afghanistan batting line up.
Cricket Tips
Any Player to Score a 50? No
Kagiso Rabada & Rashid Khan to take 2+ wickets each
*All prices are bang up to date with our snazzy widgets, while odds in copy are accurate at time of publishing but subject to change.
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