ICC World Cup 2019: Match 45, Australia vs South Africa – Statistical Preview

South Africa’s forgettable World Cup will come to an end when they face Australia in the final league match. The defending champions are set to finish on the top of the table and face New Zealand; who have lost their previous three league matches. If Australia ends up losing to South Africa and India beats Sri Lanka, they will face England in Edgbaston. The Aussies have a terrible record in Birmingham and moreover, will look to avoid the dangerous home team.

All the key stats and numbers ahead of the final league phase game of the 2019 World Cup:

2 – Australia has won only two of the six ODIs they played in the last ten years at the Old Trafford. England defeated the Aussies on four instances and lost twice in this period. Australia, however, won five out of 8 ODIs they played here until 2009.

7-1 – South Africa won seven out of their last eight ODI matches against Australia. The only win for the Aussies came at the Adelaide Oval last year by 7 runs.

18 – Number of dismissals affected by Alex Carey in this tournament; the 2nd most by any player. He has taken 17 catches and affected a stumping in this tournament thus far.  Only Adam Gilchrist (21 dismissals in 2003) has affected more dismissals in a single edition of the tournament.

33.66 – Quinton de Kock’s batting average of 33.66 in ODIs against Australia is the 2nd lowest against any team he has batted more than once. De Kock scored 606 runs from 19 innings against the Aussies with two hundreds and a fifty.

38.23 – Bowling average of Imran Tahir against Australia; the 2nd worst for him against any team he has played more than one match. Across 16 ODIs against the Aussies, the leg-spinner picked up only 17 wickets.

46 – Mitchell Starc’s 46 wickets in the World Cup are the 6th most by any player. The left-arm pacer has picked up those 46 wickets in only 16 matches at an average of 12.97 and a strike rate of 18. Starc has six 4-fers including three 5-wicket hauls in the competition; the most by any player.

980 – Faf du Plessis needs 20 more runs for completing 1000 runs in ODIs against Australia. The South African skipper scored 980 runs across 20 innings with four hundreds and three fifties.

1992 – The last instance of South Africa winning a World Cup game against Australia was back in 1992. Since then, the Proteas played four CWC games against the Aussies; losing in three and another game ending in a Tie. Their last CWC meeting came during the 2007 semi-final.