Key events
Teams: South Africa
Bavuma’s place goes to Tristan Stubbs, and Heinrich Klaasen is back to give the middle order an air of friendly menace.
1 Ryan Rickelton (wkt), 2 Tristan Stubbs, 3 Rassie van der Dussen, 4 Aiden Markram (capt), 5 Heinrich Klaasen, 6 David Miller, 7 Wiaan Mulder, 8 Marco Jansen, 9 Keshav Maharaj, 10 Kagiso Rabada, 11 Lungi Ngidi.
Teams: England
Mark Wood picked up yet another injury on Wednesday, so England bring in Saqib Mahmood, whose swing should add some much-needed variety. That’s the only change: Brendon McCullum is not a coach who believes in giving everybody a go.
England 1 Salt, 2 Duckett, 3 Smith (wkt), 4 Root, 5 Brook, 6 Buttler (capt), 7 Livingstone, 8 J Overton, 9 Archer, 10 Rashid, 11 Mahmood.
The other captain is … Aiden Markram
There’s illness in the South African camp and Temba Bavuma is one of those who are stricken. Aiden Markram takes over, possibly not on the strength of his oratory. At the toss, he’s a little terse, but polite. “Happy to chase,” he mutters, “against a strong England team.”
Toss: a win for Jos!
Jos Buttler calls heads, and heads it is. He decides to bat first. “Honoured to do it for one last time,” he says. “A bit of sadness – it’s such an honour and it’s not panned out as I would have liked it to. But, some good moments along the way…” He can say that again: he won a T20 World Cup. And even in the bad times, he has led with dignity and decency.
Preamble
Well, this is exciting. South Africa have all but qualified already, and England, after yesterday’s damp squib involving Australia and Afghanistan, can’t even climb off the bottom of the group. If the coaches had a full set of reserves, they might be tempted to make 11 changes.
Still, there’s always pride. And personal achievement. And the arc of a career. There are wickets to be taken, hundreds to be scored, nudges to be given. One side have semi-final places to play for; the other have markers to lay down for a rebuild. And Jos Buttler has one last outing as England’s white-ball captain. He may have had a torrid time lately, but he was good enough to lift a World Cup.
The rubber may be a dead one, but this is a contest between the second-fastest scorers in the 2025 Champions Trophy so far and the third-fastest. And it’s not the South Africans who are second.
Play starts at 9am GMT. See you about 8.35 with news of the toss and the teams.
