Afghanistan vs South Africa Preview: Struggling sides eye off first win

South Africa will be expected to record their first win in this years World Cup

Winless so far in the tournament, both South Africa and Afghanistan will be eagerly looking to tick the victory box when they take on each other in a World Cup encounter at Sophia Gardens.

Down and out, the two bottom-placed teams know that this will be their best chance to post their first win in the ongoing 50-over showpiece.

This is perhaps the first time that South Africa, from the very beginning, were never in contention to make it to the semi-finals but remaining winless after four matches is something unexpected.

After three straight losses against England, Bangladesh and India, their fourth match against the West Indies was abandoned due to the persistent English summer rains.

Afghanistan faced a similar fate, losing all three of their matches till now to defending champions Australia, Sri Lanka and New Zealand. However, the players of the war-torn nation can take confidence from the fact that they gave a good account of themselves against Sri Lanka and almost pulled off a victory.

While Afghanistan will be fancying their chances against a lowly South Africa side, the Proteas would be more than keen to live up to their past reputation and make a statement against the Asian minnows.

South Africa have been mostly done in by their inexperienced batting line-up, couple with injuries to a few of their key players. The Protea batsmen have been struggling, and even in the wash-out game against the West Indies found themselves down at 29/2 before the match was called off.

Experience Hashim Amla has been in dismal form and the semi-finalists of the 2015 edition can only hope that their veteran batsmen start to fire.

The responsibility rests on the shoulders of skipper Faf du Plessis and Quinton de Kock and the two will be expected to bring their ‘A’ game into the fore against Afghanistan.

Batting remains a concern for Afghanistan as well and with Mohammad Shahzad back home due to fitness issues, they will have their back against the wall.

It would be an uphill task for the Afghanistan batsmen against the likes of Kagiso Rabada and Imran Tahir.

Just like their rivals, the Afghani’s will be banking on their bowlers, led by leg-spinner Rashid Khan. WATCH OUT FOR - Quinton de Kock

Quinton de Kock will be looking to reverse his, and his nations, form.

Quinton de Kock has been quiet so far in this campaign, and would be disappointed in both his returns and the way in which his nation has struggled in this years World Cup. If de Kock can make an impact from the top of the order, it will go a long way to dictating the outcome of the match. He will know this and will be desperate to led his side to a first victory. PREDICTION

Whilst South Africa have been bitterly disappointing in this edition of the World Cup, it's hard to expect them to struggle against the lowly fancied Afghanistan. Both sides are littered with talent, and apart from multiple match winning performances from the Afghanistan stars like Rashid Khan and Mohammad Nabi, you would expect South Africa to have too much talent 1-11 to not get the two points in this one.

South Africa o to win by 20-40 runs, 3-4 wickets STATISTICS HEAD TO HEAD ODI Matches: 0 South Africa: 0

Afghanistan: 0

HEAD TO HEAD IN WORLD CUPS

Matches: 0

South Africa: 0

Afghanistan: 0

WORLD CUP RECORDS

South Africa

Matches: 58

Won: 35

Lost: 21

Best Result - Semi-Finalists (1992, 1999, 2007, 2011)

Afghanistan

Matches: 8

Won: 1

Lost: 7

Best Result - Group Stage (2015)

ODI Record since World Cup 2015: South Africa

Matches: 77

Won: 47

Lost: 29

Afghanistan

Matches: 65

Won: 34

Lost: 27