South Africa aim to sustain momentum ahead of Super Eights

South Africa and UAE meet in Group D with qualification no longer a concern for one side and no longer possible for the other. South Africa have already secured their place in the Super Eights, while UAE saw their slim qualification hopes end following New Zealand's win over Canada, a result that also eliminated Afghanistan. For South Africa, this fixture is about fine-tuning and building rhythm ahead of the next round, while UAE will aim to sign off from their campaign with a strong performance.

South Africa's campaign has been built on balance and control. The 2024 edition's runners-up began with a dominant win over Canada, held their nerve in a dramatic two-Super-Over thriller against Afghanistan, and followed it up with another strong showing against New Zealand. Their batting has found contributions across the order, allowing them to recover even when early wickets have fallen, while the bowling unit has consistently delivered at key moments. The pace attack has set the tone, with Keshav Maharaj's spin providing control through the middle overs, giving them the all-round solidity.

UAE, meanwhile, have experienced a mixed tournament. After a heavy defeat to New Zealand, they responded impressively with a narrow win over Canada that briefly revived their campaign, before falling short again against Afghanistan. There have been encouraging individual displays with both bat and ball, and at their best they have shown discipline and composure in phases. With qualification no longer possible, UAE's focus will shift to finishing strongly and carrying confidence from this outing into future tournaments.

When:Match 34, Wednesday, February 18 at 11:00 AM local time

Where: Arun Jaitley Stadium, Delhi

What to expect: Four matches have been played so far in Delhi, with the teams batting second holding a 3-1 advantage, chasing down targets in the 150-160 range. The time a team batting first won here was when India posted 209 against Namibia.

Team news:

South Africa:

With qualification secured, South Africa face a choice between rotating their resources and sticking with a tried-and-tested XI. They have used 12 players so far in the tournament, with Jason Smith, Anrich Nortje and Kwena Maphaka still awaiting their first game.

Probable XI:Aiden Markram (c), Quinton de Kock (wk), Ryan Rickelton, Dewald Brevis, David Miller, Tristan Stubbs, Marco Jansen, Corbin Bosch, Kagiso Rabada, Keshav Maharaj, Lungi Ngidi

UAE:

UAE could stick with the same XI after making a couple of changes in their previous game against Afghanistan, bringing in Simranjeet Singh and Syed Haider.

Probable XI: Aryansh Sharma (wk), Muhammad Waseem (c), Alishan Sharafu, Sohaib Khan, Syed Haider, Harshit Kaushik, Muhammad Arfan, Haider Ali, Simranjeet Singh, Junaid Siddique, Muhammad Jawadullah

What they said:

"I don't think I'll be a proper slogger. I think I need to do it a bit differently maybe to other guys, but with the intent to still get the team off to a fly" - Aiden Markram, South Africa captain.

"The more we play cricket with the Test nations...you have seen that the associate countries are performing (well). They are having good matches, the boys are learning a lot from them." - Muhammed Waseem, UAE captain.