Match Overview

Ireland will play an exciting cricket match as they are keen to beat the highly reputed strong South African side to gain the winning momentum. Since the match is scheduled to start in the evening, the conditions will be suitable for the spinners with warm weather and dry wicket will make the lives of the pacers difficult. Both teams will take the match seriously as the opportunity will tune up their teams for the qualification matches.

Venue: Abu Dhabi, Sheikh Zayed Stadium

Date: October 2

Time: 5:00 PM

SWOT

SWOT of Ireland against South Africa

• Strengths: batsmen such as Paul Stirling, Andy Balbirnie, and other experienced players create a powerful and solid middle-order lineup. Their spin-handling ability and adeptness in playing in subcontinent-like conditions could be their strength.
• Weaknesses: Ireland is not close to South Africa when it comes to experience and a fiery pace attack that can put the break on a high-flying South African batting line-up. But their fielding performance gives us ample reason to believe that they are no match for South Africa in this department.
• Opportunities: With South Africa in a relaxed mood and possibly they will be resting their key players or looking to test their fringe players, it could offer a great opportunity for Ireland to satisfy their desire to play the giant killer. The dry pitch condition will favour the Ireland spinners
• Threats: South Africa’s fire and experienced top orders like Quinnton De Cock and Temba Bavuma will offer a serviceable performance. Their counter-pace ability is a vulnerability and the change in the fixture as opposed to the earlier plan of playing them in a strip of the WACA IS going to be at their disadvantage.

SWOT of South Africa against Ireland

• Strengths: The all-round abilities of Ngidi and Maharaj give South Africa an edge over Ireland. Apart from their ability to pick wickets, the duo can also come in handy towards the end with the bat.
• Weaknesses: South Africa has had a fairly inconsistent performance in ODI cricket in recent times. Their middle order has also been guilty at times of not capitalizing on good starts.
• Opportunities: Ireland is much less fancied than South Africa to win the game. It is an opportunity for the Proteas to test their bench strength or for the star players to get some runs under their belt.
• Threats: With even sides being familiar with the conditions in Abu Dhabi, South Africa’s advantage over the Irish in the form of Maharaj and Ngidi might be cancelled out. Any overreliance on the openers or the star players could also backfire.

Prediction

South Africa is a strong favourite in the game due to better experience and squad. Nevertheless, Ireland has the potential to surprise the opponent, and there is a high probability that their middle order will be able to resist the attack of South Africa. Even though Ireland is going to resist, South Africa will emerge victorious, and probably, they will enjoy a competitive game, especially, if the game settings allow to leverage of some teams’ strengths.