South Africa and Pakistan battle for survival

Two teams in green, two teams with three points, two teams who are fighting for survival in the ICC World Cup. This is South Africa vs Pakistan at Lords.

Both teams have come into this campaign without much furor about their chances of winning it and they have both had tournaments without many positives.

At least Pakistan had a big win against the more fancied hosts England, but apart from a win against the unimpressive Afghanistan, it has been all doom and gloom for the Proteas.

All of that culminated in the last over defeat against New Zealand in their last match once again when the demons from 2015 and 2011, when the Kiwis knocked them out of the tournament, came back to haunt them.

As for Pakistan, it was a tame defeat against one of the tournament favourites and arch-nemesis India, which has drawn the ire of fans and ex-players alike.

A defeat for South Africa would certainly knock them out of the tournament while a defeat for Pakistan would not be the end of things.

They could still win their remaining games to finish on nine points as they have played one match less than the Proteas, and they could qualify if England and the teams below England fail to get more than eight points.

History favours South Africa, who have won three of four World Cup encounters with Pakistan. Pakistan did, however, win the most recent one, in Auckland in 2015.

This will be the first time Pakistan and South Africa play each other at Lord's. Of their three previous encounters in England, South Africa have won two, while Pakistan triumphed most recently at the Champions Trophy in 2017.

Team news

The performance against New Zealand was much improved, even if it didn't produce the result South Africa so desperately needed. They are likely to stick with the same XI.

South Africa (possible): 1 Quinton de Kock (wk), 2 Hashim Amla, 3 Faf du Plessis (capt), 4 Rassie van der Dussen, 5 Aiden Markram, 6 David Miller, 7 Chris Morris, 8 Andile Phehlukwayo, 9 Kagiso Rabada, 10 Imran Tahir, 11 Lungi Ngidi

After scores of 8, 0 and 0, Shoaib Malik might have played his last game in a Pakistan shirt. Haris Sohail should take his place. Hasan Ali's lacklustre performances might push him to the bench, with Mohammad Hasnain poised to slot in.

Pakistan (possible): 1 Imam-ul-Haq, 2 Fakhar Zaman, 3 Babar Azam, 4 Mohammad Hafeez, 5 Sarfaraz Ahmed (capt & wk), 6 Haris Sohail, 7 Shadab Khan, 8 Imad Wasim, 9 Mohammad Amir, 10 Wahab Riaz, 11 Shaheen Afridi

Pitch and conditions

The pitch the game will be played on has lost much of its green in the past 24 hours, and is likely to shed more by match time on Sunday. It's expected to be a flat wicket, good for batting.

These days, that would mean bowl first, but given Pakistan's misadventure with the toss against India last Sunday, this may just be a better toss to lose for them.

The pitch should be one that favours the batsmen more and given both teams’ weaknesses in chasing big totals, it should be a win toss and bat first wicket.

The temperature should range between 15-25 degree Celsius with some decent sunshine and very little chance of showers.

However, given that it’s England, the rain can come and go at any time and that could come into the equation today.