Impressive South Africa Face Confident England

Barbados: It will be a battle of equals when a confident England locks horns with title favourite South Africa in a Group E Super Eight match of the Twenty20 World Cup at the Kensington Oval on Saturday.

While England defeated Pakistan by six wickets in their first match of the Super Eight stage on Thursday, South Africa also produced a clinical performance to get the better of New Zealand by 13 runs in the other match of the day.

With each of them having two points in the kitty, both the Englishmen and Proteas will be aiming to continue with the winning momentum and inch closer towards a semifinal berth.

Neither batting nor bowling is a worry for England, which on Thursday rode on Kevin Pietersen's sizzling unbeaten 70 to defeat Pakistan and the team will expect another crackling performance from the experienced cricketer.

England have an dependable opening pair of Michael Lumb and Craig Kieswetter, who can give a solid foundation while there are batsmen like captain Paul Collingwood and Eoin Morgan to support Pietersen in the middle order.

Their bowling has been equally impressive so far in the tournament.

Ryan Sidebottom makes the batsmen's life miserable with his consummate line and length, while Tim Bresnan and Stuart Broad have the ability of producing some timely breakthroughs in the middle overs.

On the other hand, consistency is the main strength of the South African batting department, which includes star all-rounder Jacques Kallis and the experienced Herschelle Gibbs.

Captain Graeme Smith is coming up in the order, while the rest of line-up also has power-hitters like AB de Villiers, Albie Morkel and Mark Boucher who can pull the team out of the pit in case of any early slip-up.

Their bowling line-up is also ready to give the English batsmen some tough time.

Charl Langeveldt has proved his mettle with the new ball on several occasions and he will get support from speedster Dale Steyn and medium pacer Andre Botha.

At times Smith would also like to take the help of Kallis who can fetch from his wide experience to produce required breakthroughs.

Team news

England have resisted the temptation to tinker with their line-up since the surprising decision to select Ryan Sidebottom ahead of James Anderson, and the probability is that they'll stick to the same again, much to Anderson's chagrin.

Squad from Paul Collingwood (C), James Anderson, Ravi Bopara, Tim Bresnan, Stuart Broad, Michael Lumb, Eoin Morgan, Kevin Pietersen, Ajmal Shahzad, Ryan Sidebottom, Graeme Swann, James Tredwell, Luke Wright, Michael Yardy, Craig Kieswetter (WK)

South Africa Bosman has form against England following his remarkable 94 in Centurion, but he has struggled in the Caribbean and against New Zealand he made way at the top of the order for the old guard of Jacques Kallis and Graeme Smith, with Herschelle Gibbs slotting in at No. 3.

Squad from Graeme Smith (C), Jacques Kallis (VC), Loots Bosman, Johan Botha, Mark Boucher (WK), AB de Villiers, Jean-Paul Duminy, Herschelle Gibbs, Charl Langeveldt, Albie Morkel, Morne Morkel, Rory Kleinveldt, Juan Theron, Dale Steyn, Roelof van der Merwe

Pitch and conditions
It's a springy surface and bowlers have enjoyed themselves so far in the tournament, although the ability to put bat through ball hasn't exactly cooled the ardour of the likes of Pietersen, Morkel and even Afghanistan's Hamid Hassan. The weather is set fair - fairer, certainly, than anything England encountered in Guyana and the likely scenario is that the side who wins the toss will bat first.

Stats and trivia

• The teams have met in four previous Twenty20 internationals (with one abandonment). England's only win came in Johannesburg, while they were comfortably beaten in each of their previous two World Twenty20 encounters.
• England have purged their Twenty20 line-up to such an extent that only four of the men who took the field at Centurion in November are likely to line up in Saturday's match.

Match facts
Saturday May 08, 2010
Start time 13:30 local (17:30 GMT)