Australia vs South Africa, Champions Trophy: Decoding key player battles
What's the story
Australia will take on South Africa in the seventh match of the ongoing ICC Champions Trophy 2025.
The Group B game will be played on Tuesday, February 25, at the Rawalpindi Cricket Stadium.
Both sides have started their campaigns on a high, with South Africa beating Afghanistan by a whopping 107 runs and Australia clinching a five-wicket win over England.
Here we decode the anticipated player battles in Australia-South Africa clash.
#1
Kagiso Rabada vs Travis Head
One of the highly anticipated clashes would be between South Africa's Kagiso Rabada and Australian opener Travis Head.
The latter is among the most destructive batters going around and it would be interesting to see how he tackles Rabada's thunderbolts early on.
As per ESPNcricinfo, Rabada has dismissed the Aussie opener thrice across eight ODI innings.
#2
Keshav Maharaj vs Josh Inglis
South Africa will rely on left-arm spinner Keshav Maharaj to keep things in check.
Maharaj is now for his economical bowling in the middle overs.
He will have his task cut out against Josh Inglis, who smoked a breathtaking 120* in the preceding game.
It must be noted that Inglis has fallen to left-arm spinners thrice across 11 ODI innings.
#3
Adam Zampa vs Aiden Markram
Adam Zampa has struggled of late with his control. He has leaked runs and SA have handled him well.
Zampa will need to up his performance and a duel versus Aiden Markram will keep fans excited.
The latter smoked a brilliant fifty in SA's opener against Afghanistan.
Notably, Zampa has dismissed Markram only once across six meetings in the ODI format.
Markram has a strike rate of 115.68 in this battle.