Two group 'B' teams, South Africa and Ireland will be playing the 34th match of the ICC Cricket World Cup 2011 at Kolkata's historical and the largest cricket stadium in India, Eden Gardens stadium on Tuesday, March 15.
South Africa, who has never lifted the Cricket World Cup trophy, is one of the strongest contenders in the tenth edition of the Cricket World Cup.
Before the next tie against Ireland, South African morale is very high because they defeated another strong contenders of the Cricket World Cup 2011, India, by three wickets at Vidarbha Cricket Association's Jamtha Stadium in Nagpur, this Saturday.
However, before the match against India, the South African lost by six runs in a low-scoring match against England. In their opening match, the Proteas beat West Indies by seven wickets and in the next match against beat Netherlands a huge margin of 231 runs.
Ireland, who is now out from the race of quarter finals of the ICC Cricket World Cup 2011, have been the most impressive among the non-Test playing nations.
The Irish team made the biggest upset in the tournament after winning against the English team. They had also given a tough fight to India and West Indies before losing.
South African batsman AB de Villiers is the third highest run getter in the ICC Cricket World Cup 2011 after Virender Sehwag and Sachin Tendulkar. He scored 318 runs in four matches with two hundreds and a fifty, at an astonishing average of 106 and strike rate of 111.
South African and the Irish team have met two times so far and the Africans won on both the occasions. During the 2007 Cricket World Cup in the Super Eights, South Africa won by seven wickets.
Eden Gardens is likely to help batsmen as the pitch offers even bounce. The captain who will win the toss is likely to bat first at this renovated stadium.
Here are the South Africa and Ireland squads for the ICC Cricket World Cup 2011:
South Africa: Graeme Smith (capt), Hashim Amla, Johan Botha, AB de Villiers (wk), JP Duminy, Faf du Plessis, Colin Ingram, Jacques Kallis, Morne Morkel, Wayne Parnell, Robin Peterson, Dale Steyn, Imran Tahir, Lonwabo Tsotsobe, Morne van Wyk (wk).
Ireland: William Porterfield (capt), Trent Johnston, Alex Cusack, Andre Botha, Kevin O'Brien, Niall O'Brien (wk), Nigel Jones, Ed Joyce, John Mooney, Paul Stirling, Gary Wilson (wk), George Dockrell, Boyd Rankin, Albert van der Merwe, Andrew White.
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