Pakistan vs. South Africa, 1st T20: Date, Time, Live Stream, TV Info and Preview

What: Pakistan v South Africa, first Twenty20 international
Where: Dubai
When: Wednesday, Nov. 13, 16.00 GMT
Live Stream/TV info

Squads

Pakistan: Mohammad Hafeez (capt), Nasir Jamshed, Ahmed Shehzad, Umar Akmal (wk), Umar Amin, Shahid Afridi, Sohaib Maqsood, Abdul Razzaq, Sohail Tanvir, Mohammad Irfan, Junaid Khan, Saeed Ajmal, Shoaib Malik, Abdur Rehman

South Africa: Faf du Plessis (capt), Hashim Amla, Henry Davids, Quinton de Kock (wk), Jean-Paul Duminy, Imran Tahir, Ryan McLaren, David Miller, Morne Morkel, Wayne Parnell, Aaron Phangiso, Dale Steyn, Lonwabo Tsotsobe, David Wiese

Form

While last month’s two-match Test series was surprisingly shared, the five-game one-day international (ODI) contest that immediately followed has, as expected, gone the way of the tourists.

However, the final 4-1 scoreline in favour of AB de Villiers’ men was perhaps a little unexpected, although then again, nothing can truly be deemed a shock where Pakistan are concerned.

And as for both sides’ recent form in this shorter form of the game, well the hosts—who are currently ranked second in the world—have won each of their previous two T20 series 2-0 away from “home” against Zimbabwe in August and West Indies last July.

Meanwhile South Africa were last involved in international T20 cricket three months ago and were also victorious as they overcame Sri Lanka 2-1 on their travels to leave the Proteas in fifth place in the world rankings.

Key men

Pakistan
While off-spinners Saeed Ajmal and Mohammad Hafeez are currently ranked as the world’s second- and third-best bowlers respectively in this form of the game, it is hard not to look much past the all-round skills of Shahid Afridi.

The leg-spinner is usually desperately hard to get away with his fast and accurate leg breaks, while his explosive batting down the order can also take the game away from an opposition in the blink of an eye, hence his current ranking as the world’s fifth-best all-rounder in T20s.

South Africa

Oddly as far as the Proteas are concerned at the moment, they do not have one single player in any of the current top 10s of either the T20 batting, bowling or all-rounder world rankings, which perhaps makes up for their utter domination in the Test and ODI arenas.

However, if his unexpectedly eye-catching form during the recent Test and 50-over series is anything to go by, then South Africa leg-spinner Imran Tahir will be a particularly hard man to get away by the Pakistan batsmen at the Dubai International Cricket Stadium on Wednesday.

Other information

Weather: We are expecting a low of 21 degrees Celsius and a high of 29 degrees Celsius in Dubai on Wednesday evening (provided by the BBC).

Pitch: Only one of the recent five ODIs between the two countries was actually staged at the Dubai International Cricket Stadium, with Pakistan winning a low-scoring affair by 66 runs after winning the toss and posting 209 all out, with South African medium-pacer Ryan McLaren picking up four for 34.
And with only one player on both sides passing 50 in the match, “home” opener Ahmed Shehzad, the tourists were then skittled for just 143 in reply thanks to Afridi’s three for 26.

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