South Africa will lock horns with Zimbabwe in a four-day warm-up match on Wednesday, June 04 in preparation for the upcoming World Test Championship (WTC) Final against Australia, starting from June 11 to 15 in the Lord's Stadium. Zimbabwe is coming off an innings defeat against England in Southampton, while Proteas last played a Test match in January against Pakistan in 2025.
They will certainly be rusty, except for the players who featured in Indian Premier League (IPL 2025) Season. The warm-up match against Zimbabwe will give them a golden chance to get acclimatized to the English conditions. They have also roped Stuart Broad as the bowling consultant ahead of the WTC Final. Traditionally, the Proteas have always boasted of quality bowling attack, and they will yet again bank on that to come good against Zimbabwe & against Australia in the grand finale of WTC.
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SA vs ZIM Match Preview
At the start of the third WTC Cycle 2023-2025, experts predicted South Africa could reach the finals easily as they have only 11 Tests to be played, and the teams they are facing are all easy. Fair enough to those experts, South Africa faced Sri Lanka, Pakistan, and the West Indies in the WTC Cycle and easily beat them. They only lost one series against New Zealand, that too because they were forced to play a second-string team due to first-choice players playing SA20 League in 2024. The Temba Bavuma-led side also beat India in late 2023.
However, they will now be up against defending WTC Champions Australia, who know the knack of winning major titles. South Africa also have a weight of history to get rid of the C word. So the pressure will be on them to beat the mighty Aussie to get hold of their maiden ICC trophy. Bowling looks good with Kagiso Rabada, Marco Jansen, Keshav Maharaj, and Wiaan Mulder in it. Batting is a bit inexperienced, and the onus will be on Aiden Markram and Temba Bavuma to do the bulk of run scoring.
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As far as Zimbabwe are concerned, they will look to take a lot of positives by playing against a quality team. The African nation beat Bangladesh in the sub-continent and managed to show some fight against England. Brain Bennett and Ben Curran have been find of the season for them. The experienced duo of Sean Williams and Sikandar Raza have also chipped in with useful contributions.
SA vs ZIM ICC World Test Championship Final 2025, 4-day Warm-up Match Live Streaming Details
When will the SA vs ZIM match be played?
The match will be played on June 04, Wednesday.
Where will the SA vs ZIM match be played?
It will be played Arundel Castle Cricket Ground in Sussex
What time will the SA vs ZIM match start?
The match will start at 3:30 PM IST.
How to watch the SA vs ZIM match live on TV?
NA
Where to watch the SA vs ZIM match Live?
The match will be live-streamed on the FanCode app and website.
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