US won the toss and opted to bowl first against South Africa in the T20 World Cup 2024 match which is being played at the Sir Vivian Richards Stadium in North Sound on Wednesday.
USA’s captain Aaron Jones confirmed that the team will be going with an extra spinner considering that the conditions may not be much different from Dallas.
“We’re going to go with the extra spinner,” Jones said. “I don’t think it’s going to be too different to Dallas.”
Parallel to this, South Africa’s captain Aiden Markram was unsure about what he would have done if he had won the toss.
“We weren’t sure what to do,” Markram admitted. “We would also have leaned towards bowling but we’re not too bothered with the result of the toss.”
Playing XIs
South Africa: Quinton de Kock (wk), Reeza Hendricks, Aiden Markram (c), Heinrich Klaasen, David Miller, Tristan Stubbs, Marco Jansen, Keshav Maharaj, Kagiso Rabada, Anrich Nortje, Tabraiz Shamsi
USA: Steven Taylor, Shayan Jahangir, Andries Gous (wk), Aaron Jones (c), Nitish Kumar, Corey Anderson, Harmeet Singh, Jasdeep Singh, Nosthush Kenjige, Ali Khan, Saurabh Netravalkar
As they won all of their group matches, the Proteas, led by Markram are definitely high on confidence. Having played all of their matches in the USA, South Africa are stranger to the Caribbean conditions — unlike other Super 8 sides like West Indies, Afghanistan, Australia, and England.
Their bowling has been spectacular, with the likes of Anrich Nortje and Marco Jense all starring with the ball but the same would be required from their batting unit today. Reeza Hendricks, Markram, and Quinton de Kock have all struggled in the T20 World Cup so far.
Moreover, it has been a fairytale journey for the USA. With an emphatic win over Canada where they chased down the massive 195-run target in 17.4 overs, they began their World Cup campaign. They went on to upset Pakistan after a thrilling Super Over while their match against Ireland was washed out following a defeat against India.
The USA will surely count on their skipper Monank Patel to once again step up and play a captain’s knock and Aaron Jones, who etched his name in the history books against Canada, to do what he does best. In bowling, they will have high expectations from Saurabh Netravalkar and Ali Khan.
