South Africa v Australia: Cricket World Cup 2023 semi-final – live

Key events

2nd over: South Africa 2-1 (de Kock 2, van der Dussen 0) Josh Hazlewood’s first delivery lifts and seams to beat de Kock, who then edges wide of slip for a single. The new batter Rassie van der Dussen keeps out a good nipbacker and is cut in half by a jaffa.

That’s a fantastic start from Hazlewood. The overhead conditions are a bit of a gamechanger, and Australia are on the prowl. South Africa need to treat the first 10 overs like a Test match.

1st over: South Africa 1-1 (de Kock 1, van der Dussen 0) We’ve all been talking about 1999 this week but there’s another precedent South Africa will be mindful of – their shambolic, overeager batting performance against Australia in the 2007 semi-final.

Temba Bavuma has gone for a fourth-ball duck. It was a fine delivery from Starc – tight line, just back of a length – and Bavuma snicked a defensive push through to Josh Inglis. Not quite the perfect start for Australia, because they’ve have preferred to dismiss Quinton de Kock, but it’s not far short.

Temba Bavuma is out for a duck.
Temba Bavuma trudges back to the pavilion. A big start for Australia. Photograph: Mahesh Kumar A/AP

Goddim!

Mitchell Starc celebrates the wicket of Bavuma
Australia have got their game faces on! Photograph: Matt Roberts-ICC/ICC/Getty Images

Mitchell Starc will open the bowling. He hasn’t had a great tournament – 10 wickets at 44 – but it’s overcast and the new ball should swing. This is his chance.

ICYMI South Africa are about to play Australia in a World Cup semi-final, and it is gargantuan.

May the best team meet India in the final on Sunday.

“Re: your comment about a reserve day,” begins Jonathan. “Are all 20-over match thrashes or just this hypothetical one? I fear the T20 purists would object to such a word.”

So would anyone with a half-decent command of language, but I’d just stumbled out of bed and my brain only presented me with a couple of options. I reluctantly concluded that ‘20-over thrash’ was preferable to ‘desperate 20-over arsenipper’.

“Well here we are, Rob,” says Guy Hornsby. “What’s par on this pitch? SA winning the toss is massive (which is a shame really, as was yesterday) and they’ll want to go big so will Australia be happy chasing anything over 320? I’d assume not. And that SA will want to bat them out of the game, with 350+.

“Also a big shout to Marnus, who having been left out of the squad, is now a lock. I’m not sure he and Smith together is great in a chase (or generally) and while it feels like heresy, I’d have picked Stoinis over the great man, who doesn’t seem who he once was in the short format. Everything ends in the end, I guess.”

Have you been watching Six Feet Under again? I’ve no idea what a par score is, as I don’t have a great view of the pitch from my office in Bruton. But my instinct, based on the experts’ views, is that it’s between 280 and 320. The first 10 overs are vital for South Africa because the new balls should do a bit. It’s important they don’t lose early wickets plural.

Ricky Ponting says Adam Zampa is Australia’s most important player. The stats back him up. In ODI victories he has taken 121 wickets at 20.83; in defeats his record is 41 at 48.97.

Pitch report Matthew Hayden, once again wearing his magnificent pink fedora, thinks there will be plenty of turn as the match progresses. He also says South Africa need a minimum score of 300.

Temba Bavuma says he isn’t 100 per cent fit, though he was never going to miss this game. South Africa bring in Tabraiz Shamsi for Lungi Ngidi, which means the feisty Gerald Coetzee keeps his place. Bavuma didn’t specify whether Ngidi was injured or omitted.

Australia bring back two big guns, Mitchell Starc and Glenn Maxwell, for Sean Abbott and Marcus Stoinis. That means they’ve kept the middle-order insurance of Marnus Labuschagne.

South Africa de Kock (wk), Bavuma (c), van der Dussen, Markram, Klaasen, Miller, Jansen, Coetzee, Maharaj, Rabada, Shamsi.

Australia Head, Warner, Marsh, Smith, Labuschagne, Maxwell, Inglis (wk), Cummins (c), Starc, Zampa, Hazlewood.

Temba Bavuma humours Mike Atherton by saying he considered bowling first because of the conditions. Pat Cummins would also have batted, though he doesn’t seem too disappointed. The new ball should swing given the overhead conditions.

The covers are off and it looks like we’re going to start on time.

The covers are on in Kolkata, so the start is likely to be delayed. The forecast for rain adds another layer of intrigue to this game. Both teams will surely bat first if they win the toss – South Africa because they want to, Australia because South Africa want to – but a reduced runchase would muddy those particular waters.

There is a reserve day if necessary, though the umpires will make every attempt to finish the match today, even if that means a 20-over thrash.

Look, it was always going to be like this. As the penny dropped, in the first fortnight of the World Cup, that South Africa were serious contenders, the cricket world instinctively understood that they would have to beat Australia at some stage. Not in the league stage – though they did that handsomely – but in the knockouts, when it really counts.

One statistic tells the story of this game. South Africa are hoping to reach their first World Cup final; Australia expect to reach their eighth. This is a humdinger of a semi-final between two teams who have more in common than they would ever dare admit – and fundamental differences that South Africa need to overcome.

The history of this fixture is simple: Australia win the games that really matter. In that context, South Africa’s outstanding run of 16 wins in the last 20 ODIs against Australia is almost ominous, because none of those games were anywhere near as big as this.

But they have a proven template to beat Australia, and everyone else for that matter: win the toss, bat first, bat big, ideally huge. They are too good not to crack this thing eventually. We’re about to find out whether today is the day.