TONY LAWRENCE, London | Friday 11.00am.
PAKISTAN and South Africa meet on Saturday in what may prove to be a dress rehearsal for the World Cup final.
Mark I, however, will be as hotly contested as Mark II.
South Africa, edged out by Pakistan as tournament favourites over the last few days, badly need to win this first round.
Defeat would mean they could not afford another slip-up in their last two Super Sixes game to reach the semi-finals.
Pakistan are better placed, with four points from the first round compared to South Africa’s two.
But the opportunity to gain a psychological edge, should the two teams meet again, will spur on Wasim Akram’s side.
Coach Mushtaq Mohammad said: “We’re not worrying about points or table positions – we’ve just set our goal of winning every game.”
Hansie Cronje’s men, however, appear to have the measure of their opponents, with an extraordinary 12-match winning sequence that stretches back five years.
Each time, professional perspiration has counted for more than Pakistan’s unpredictable inspiration.
Cronje, however, knows that Pakistan, with victories over Australia, the West Indies and New Zealand, are as confident as they have been for years.
South Africa’s bowling, meanwhile, is not making the early inroads the captain had been expecting, a weakness glaringly highlighted in the defeat to Zimbabwe last Saturday.
“When we have bowled first, sides have been getting 60 or 70 runs against us in the first 15 overs and it is difficult to pull it back from there,” he said. “That is something I want to turn around.”
The battle between Allan Donald, Shaun Pollock, Jacques Kallis and Lance Klusener on the one hand, and the Pakistan top order on the other, may prove central.
Donald and Co, however, will fancy their chances. In the last two one-dayers between the sides, in April last year, Pakistan were bowled out for 145 and 114.
South Africa look certain to go into the game with an unchanged side for the fourth game in a row, with pace bowler Steve Elworthy getting the nod over left-arm spinner Nicky Boje.
Pakistan must decide whether to pick the dour Wajahatullah Wasti or the pinch-hitting Shahid Afridi as Anwar’s opening partner.
South Africa have won the only two previous World Cup matches between them. In 1996 in Karachi Daryll Cullinan made 65. — AFP
Pakistan’s best performers of that day will be absent.
Aamir Sohail, who made 111, did not make the World Cup squad, while three-wicket Waqar Younis is not likely to be selected.
Pakistan (probable): Saeed Anwar, Wajahatullah Wasti, Abdul Razzaq, Ijaz Ahmed, Inzamam-ul Haq, Yousuf Youhanna, Moin Khan, Wasim Akram (capt), Azhar Mahmood, Saqlain Mushtaq, Shoaib Akhtar.
South Africa (probable): Gary Kirsten, Herschelle Gibbs, Mark Boucher, Jacques Kallis, Darryl Cullinan, Hansie Cronje (capt), Jonty Rhodes, Shaun Pollock, Lance Klusener, Steve Elworthy, Allan Donald.