ODI World Cup digest: Zampa, Inglis help Australia get off the mark; South Africa look to keep motoring

ODI World Cup digest: Zampa, Inglis help Australia get off the mark; South Africa look to keep motoring،

The Men’s ODI World Cup 2023 takes place in India from October 5 to November 19. Every morning, we’ll round up the latest action and news from the event and bring you the perspectives of our journalists on the ground.

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Headlines: Australia gets its World Cup campaign back on track

Australia 215 for 5 (Inglis 58, Marsh 52, Madushanka 3-38) beaten Sri Lanka 209 (Perera 78, Nissanka 61, Zampa 4-47) by five wickets

Australia followed up Sri Lanka’s below-par score of 209 with some ease by claiming a five-wicket victory in Lucknow to revive their flagging World Cup campaign. The result leaves Sri Lanka second to last on the table with three defeats from three, and essentially only needing wins from now on to have any chance of qualifying for the semi-finals.

For Australia, it was a victory achieved by a tenacious bowling effort, then capped by a run chase illustrated by the clarity of its thinking. Adam Zampa was the pick of the bowlers with figures of 4 for 47, while Pat Cummins and Mitchell Starc grabbed two each. However, special mention should go to David Warner for two exceptional catches in the deep to dismiss Pathum Nissanka and Kusal Mendis, wickets who in many ways catalyzed Sri Lanka’s downfall. It was also a defensive effort that was a welcome change for Australia, after their opening defeats to India and South Africa were marked by unusually poor catches.

Click here for the full report

Match Analysis: Zampa holds on to help reverse Australia’s fortunes

Adam Zampa had come into this match with figures of 1 for 123 from the 18 overs he had bowled in the defeats against India and South Africa. He was already suffering from pain in his hips, neck and shoulders, and before this match he also suffered from back spasms.

This lethal cocktail of form and fitness may have led to other teams benching Zampa and picking another spinner, but Australia had no other spinner to turn to. So he felt – as he said in his post-match press conference – “like adrenaline and a little Panadeine Forte were going to get me through.”

Read the full analysis of Karthik Krishnaswamy in Lucknow

One to Watch: Tom Moody on Adam Zampa

Moody: Zampa far from being at his best physically

Tom Moody asks us if we saw the best of Zampa today

News headlines

Match Preview

Netherlands v South Africa, Lucknow (2 p.m. IST; 8:30 a.m. GMT; 7:30 p.m. AEST)

Moody: South Africa just needs to think one day at a time

Tom Moody on South Africa’s prospects ahead of Netherlands match

South Africa were stunned by the Netherlands in last year’s Men’s T20 World Cup in Australia. So when the two teams meet in Dharamsala on Tuesday, they will not view the Netherlands as a weaker opponent. At the same time, they should not be under any pressure. This time, it’s a longer format, which reduces the risk of surprises. When these teams played two ODIs earlier this year, South Africa beat the Netherlands by eight wickets and 146 runs.

A more important reason, perhaps, is South Africa’s recent form: they are on a five-game winning streak. In each of these games, they batted first, smashed over 300, crossed 400 twice and won by over 100 runs. Arguably, they have the strongest batting unit in this World Cup.

Full overview

Team News

South Africa (probable): 1 Quinton de Kock (week), 2 Temba Bavuma (captain), 3 Rassie van der Dussen, 4 Aiden Markram, 5 David Miller, 6 Heinrich Klaasen, 7 Marco Jansen, 8 Kagiso Rabada, 9 Keshav Maharaj, 10 Lungi Ngidi, 11 Tabraiz Shamsi/Gerald Coetzee

The Netherlands (probable): 1 Vikramjit Singh, 2 Max O’Dowd, 3 Colin Ackermann, 4 Bas de Leede, 5 Teja Nidamanuru, 6 Scott Edwards (captain and week), 7 Sybrand Engelbrecht, 8 Roelof van der Merwe, 9 Logan van Beek /Ryan Klein, 10 years old Aryan Dutt, 11 years old Paul van Meekeren