South Africa

Heinrich Klaasen has revealed that he wants to prove he is “the best in the world”, after his 64 off 56 balls helped South Africa cruise to a seven-wicket win over England on Saturday, confirming their place in the semi-finals of the Champions Trophy. Klaasen missed South Africa’s first match of the tournament with an

Big picture: All eyes on Buttler What could have been a quarter-final is all but a dead rubber as Group B closes out with the meeting of two heavyweights. England are already out of semi-final contention, and will soon have to go down a spiral of introspection over their poor ODI showings, starting with the

Paterson, 35, took five-wicket hauls in both of the Tests he played in South Africa’s home summer, against Sri Lanka in Gqerbha, and against Pakistan at Centurion. He has signed a contract which covers Middlesex’s first seven Championship fixtures – including four games at Lord’s, where South Africa will face Australia in the WTC final.

While most in South African white-ball cricket see every step of the next two years as building their path to the home ODI World Cup in 2027, Rassie van der Dussen can entertain the idea that the Champions Trophy 2025 could be his last multi-team event. Van der Dussen turned 36 earlier this month and

South Africa are not in a position to think about this yet but should they need to travel to Dubai for a Champions Trophy semi-final or final, they will be at a disadvantage compared to their opposition: India, who are based in the UAE. That’s according to top-order batter Rassie van der Dussen, who said

Match abandoned due to rain Australia vs South Africa The much-anticipated Champions Trophy match between Australia and South Africa in Rawalpindi was washed out without even a toss, nevermind a ball being bowled, after persistent drizzle. The match was called off at 5.10pm local time, three hours and 10 minutes after the scheduled start of

Big picture: Expect a hard-fought contest Australia and South Africa brushed off poor pre-tournament results to record wins in their opening matches of the Champions Trophy and they meet each other with their batters in good form. Australia may be riding slightly higher after they completed the highest successful chase in tournament history – 352

South Africa 315 for 6 (Rickelton 103, Bavuma 58, Markram 52*, van der Dussen 52, Nabi 2-51) beat Afghanistan 208 (Rahmat 90, Rabada 3-36, Mulder 2-36, Ngidi 2-56) by 107 runs Ryan Rickelton is showing the value of runs under the belt. He came into the Champions Trophy on the back of a solid SA20,

There was no Heinrich Klaasen or Tristan Stubbs in South Africa’s team sheet for the Champions Trophy game against Afghanistan in Karachi on Friday afternoon, and CSA confirmed that Klaasen had been ruled out “as a precautionary measure due to a left elbow soft tissue injury”. Stubbs might not have been a contender for the

Big Picture: The game some didn’t want SA to play Group B of the Champions Trophy gets underway with a fixture between the dream side of the last two tournaments, Afghanistan, and the one which has nightmares about the number of times it has not got its hands on the trophy, South Africa. Afghanistan will

“Between 2019 and now there’s too much difference and just recently we beat them [South Africa] in Sharjah – 2-1 – so we have that confidence with us and we are not under pressure anyway,” Shahidi said at his press conference on Thursday. “Because right now we are focusing what we can do in this

South Africa’s bowlers are looking forward to the chance to test themselves on batter-friendly surfaces in Pakistan, where high scores are expected to define the Champions Trophy. Since 2021, Pakistan has been home to the highest batting average in ODIs – 35.53 – and the mini tri-series which preceded the Champions Trophy saw five out

Big Picture: The knockout before the knockout The original Champions Trophy started as a knockout tournament so, as we build up to this year’s edition, here’s a bit of a throwback: Wednesday’s match between Pakistan and South Africa in the mini tri-series is a winner-takes-all affair, with New Zealand already through to Saturday’s final. It

Sometimes scorecards really do tell the story of a game, and in this case, a cursory glance makes what happened obvious. A Kane Williamson masterclass – his 14th ODI hundred and first since 2019, made light work of a South African total not too far removed from the one that saw Pakistan fall well short

The 30-year-old Bosch made his ODI debut against Pakistan in December, returning figures of 1 for 69 in nine overs, but was one of the standout seamers in SA20 champions MI Cape Town‘s campaign. Fast bowler Kwena Maphaka has also been added to the squad as a travelling reserve. They are already without Gerald Coetzee,

MI Cape Town 181 for 8 (Esterhuizen 39, Brevis 38, Gleeson 2-22) beat Sunrisers Eastern Cape 105 (Abell 30, Rabada 4-25, Boult 2-9, Linde 2-20) by 76 runs Rashid Khan’s MI Cape Town have been crowned the new champions of the SA20, after they denied Aiden Markram’s Sunrisers Eastern Cape a three-peat and decimated them

Sunrisers Eastern Cape 177 for 2 (de Zorzi 78, J Hermann 69*) beat Paarl Royals 175 for 4 (R Hermann 81*, Pretorius 59) by eight wickets Sunrisers Eastern Cape (SEC) will play in a third successive final after winning two matches in two days. They will take on first-time finalists MI Cape Town on Saturday,

Sunrisers Eastern Cape 184 for 6 (Markram 62*, Tahir 2-21) beat Joburg Super Kings 152 for 7 (Bairstow 37, Overton 2-20) by 32 runs Sunrisers Eastern Cape remain on course for the SA20 three-peat after beating Joburg Super Kings in the Eliminator in Centurion, having recovered spectacularly from three defeats in their opening three games.

The series is of great significance to the three participating teams, since it will be their last set of games before the Champions Trophy is played in Pakistan (with India’s matches to be held in Dubai) from February 19. Of South Africa’s squad members for the big eight-team tournament, Marco Jansen, Aiden Markram, David Miller,

The next edition of the SA20, season four, is set to kick off on Boxing Day 2025. This was announced on Monday, with the league firming up windows for the next three editions ahead of this season’s playoffs. Bringing the start of the league forward to Christmas week – prime time in the South African

Sellout crowds at all six venues and summer vibes (except for the three matches rained off) have already signalled season three of the SA20 as a success. There’s also the prospect of at least one new finalist, with both Pretoria Capitals and Durban’s Super Giants knocked out, and bottom-feeders of the last two tournaments, MI

Durban’s Super Giants (DSG), last season’s SA20 losing finalists, have been eliminated from playoff contention after a sixth loss and all-round disappointing campaign. They sit at the bottom of the points table, with one game left to play, and have only won one of nine matches so far (two were no results). Captain Keshav Maharaj

South Africa’s injury watch ahead of the Champions Trophy has grown after Paarl Royals’ captain David Miller left the field in the team’s final home game, against Durban’s Super Giants. Miller was fielding in the covers in the 14th over, when Marcus Stoinis threaded a ball between two fielders and he was unable to stop

South Africa’s bowling stocks have taken another hit after Gerald Coetzee, who was expected to be named as Anrich Nortje’s replacement in the the Champions Trophy squad, was left out of the Joburg Super Kings XI to play Pretoria Capitals in the SA20. ESPNcricinfo understands Coetzee has a hamstring issue and his participation in the

Gerald Coetzee, who has returned to action for the Joburg Super Kings after sustaining a groin injury in the Durban Test against Sri Lanka last November is the likeliest replacement. South Africa’s white-ball coach Rob Walter, who is also the sole selector of his squads, explained his initial selection was a straight shootout between Nortje

Fast bowlers Anrich Nortje and Lungi Ngidi have been selected in South Africa’s ODI squad for the 2025 Champions Trophy after missing the entire home international season with injuries. Nortje was out with a broken toe, while Ngidi had a groin injury. The 15-man squad is led by Temba Bavuma and includes ten players who

Shaun Pollock, the media representative of the ICC’s cricket committee, has said that the body is “working on something” to give bowlers “bit more leeway on wides”, particularly with batters often moving around the crease in limited-overs formats. “If a batter jumps across [at the] last minute, it doesn’t really work out for me,” Pollock

South Africa’s sports minister, Gayton McKenzie, has added his voice to the growing backlash at Afghanistan’s participation in next month’s ICC Champions Trophy, comparing the Taliban regime’s treatment of women in the country to Apartheid, and saying it would be “hypocritical and immoral to look the other way”. McKenzie’s intervention comes with South Africa due

South Africa have no choice but to “keep attacking” Pakistan as they go in search of the eight wickets required (as Saim Ayub will play no further part in the Test) to win the series and sweep the home summer. With a 208-run advantage, Pakistan following-on and two days left to play, South Africa will

South Africa 72 for 3 (Rickelton 50*) vs Pakistan Ryan Rickelton, promoted to open the batting in Tony de Zorzi’s injury-enforced absence, scored fifty but was the only one of South Africa’s top three to kick on as Pakistan made three important breakthroughs in the morning session. Aiden Markram, Wiaan Mulder and Tristan Stubbs will