India Face South Africa in knockout match

London: The encounter promises to be a mouth-watering contest as South Africa are the no.1 side in the world while India is the defending champion.

Team India's biggest strength has been its middle order – which features Virat Kohli, Yuvraj Singh and MS Dhoni. The opening duo of Rohit Sharma and Shikhar Dhawan have also been in sublime form and this will be a big boost for the Indians.

Overall, all the above-mentioned players are proven match winners on their day and have a wealth of experience under their belt.

South African, meanwhile, has almost all the bases covered and doesn’t really have any weaknesses.

But they have one problem of choking in the knockout stages – and this might just come back to haunt them. The batting looks solid with the like of AB De Villiers, Faf Du Plessis.

Head-2-Head in ODIs:

South Africa has the upper hand with 45 wins compared to the 28 wins by India. Its record is overwhelming at home (21-5), while India has a slight advantage in subcontinent conditions (15-13). South Africa has lost all three of its previous games against India in the Champions Trophy.

Previous Champions Trophy encounters:

1. Sophia Gardens, Cardiff, June 6, 2013
   India won by 26 runs
2. R Premadasa Stadium, Colombo, September 25, 2002
   India won by 10 runs
3. Gymkhana Club Ground, Nairobi, October 13, 2000
   India won by 95 runs

Key players for each side:

Against a South African side that is packed with quick bowlers, Rohit Sharma will have to be at his best if he wants to make an impact for India. Over the past few years, he has been groomed into a reliable opener who scores big hundreds. With his ability to pull the ball, he will threaten to blaze every short-pitched delivery South Africa bowl. If Rohit gets a big hundred, more often than not, the opposition team gets flattened.

India’s expertise with batting puts immense pressure on all of the South African bowlers to perform. But one bowler who is never unnerved by pressure is Kagiso Rabada. After having a wonderful year and a half, Rabada has more or less become South Africa’s go-to bowler in the opening overs. With his ability to swing the ball at pace, he will be looking to trouble the Indian batsmen with the new ball, and is also equally effective in the death.

Teams from:

India: Virat Kohli (Capt.), MS Dhoni (wk), Ajinkya Rahane, Rohit Sharma, Shikhar Dhawan, Dinesh Karthik (wk), Yuvraj Singh, Kedar Jadhav, Ravichandran Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Mohammed Shami, Jasprit Bumrah, Hardik Pandya and Umesh Yadav

South Africa: AB de Villiers (Capt.), Quinton de Kock (wk), Faf du Plessis, Hashim Amla, Jean-Paul Duminy, David Miller, Chris Morris, Wayne Parnell, Andile Phehlukwayo, Kagiso Rabada, Imran Tahir, Keshav Maharaj, Dwaine Pretorius, Farhaan Behardien and Morne Morkel

Stats and trivia

• Indian has won all three of its previous games against Proteas in the Champions Trophy.
• AB de Villiers has an excellent record against India with an average of 53.29 at a strike rate of 111.21. He has six centuries and five half-centuries against it.
• In the nine matches he’s played against India, Quinton de Kock has five centuries at a strike rate of 97.65.
• South Africa’s 438 in Mumbai in October 2015 is the highest total made against India. It was the second instance when three of their batsmen scored centuries.

Best at Champions Trophy:
India Joint winners 2002; winners 2013
South Africa Winners 1998

Match facts
Sunday June 11, 2017
Start time: 10:30 local | 09:30 GMT