Teams:

South Africa (Playing XI): Quinton de Kock(w), Temba Bavuma(c), Rassie van der Dussen, Aiden Markram, Heinrich Klaasen, David Miller, Marco Jansen, Gerald Coetzee, Keshav Maharaj, Kagiso Rabada, Lungi Ngidi

New Zealand (Playing XI): Devon Conway, Will Young, Rachin Ravindra, Daryl Mitchell, Tom Latham(w/c), Glenn Phillips, James Neesham, Mitchell Santner, Matt Henry, Tim Southee, Trent Boult

Aiden Markram: We were looking to bowl first. Pitch looks a bit dry. Kagiso Rabada comes in for Shamsi. We want to run with the momentum. Was not out clinical display last game but it was important to get those key moments to cross the line.

New Zealand have won the toss and have opted to field

Tom Latham: We are going to bowl, reasonably good surface. Potential dew later on. One change, Tim Southee comes in for Lockie Ferguson. Guys are confident around the group. They have been playing fantastic crickey, going to be a good game today.

New Zealand have won the toss and have opted to field

Pitch report: 62m and 67m square boundaries, 74m straight hit. It does look like a good wicket, nice and hard. There is a little bit of grass cover and some cracks. Might be a bit two paced and slow down as the game progresses. There was some seam movement and carry in the second part previously. There has been good pace and carry in the previous games, so teams will expect that today too - reckon Ricky Ponting and Shaun Pollock.

New Zealand have beaten South Africa in the last five WC meetings

The Proteas pulled off a thriller against Pakistan at Chepauk. They got it Shamsi, who made a great impact with four wickets. They were placed pretty well in the chase but got Pakistan back into the contest and even gave them a sniff at victory by playing some ill-advised shots for conditions at Chepauk.

Matt Henry, their best pace bowler of the World Cup, had an off day against Australia as Warner and Head lined up for a big assault.

Smallish boundaries, pitched usually good for batting, two very good batting units and potent bowling units - New Zealand v South Africa, the humdinger is here! If you are around Pune, grab a seat at the MCA stadium in Pune. This is the contest we all have been waiting for after the initial few games into this World Cup. But the Blackcaps have been hit by injuries. Williamson and Southee continue to be sidelined, Lockie picked up an injury last game, while there are some concerns about Mark Chapman too.

Preview by Telford Vice

Rugby is a bigger deal than cricket in New Zealand and South Africa. Small wonder: the All Blacks or the Springboks have won seven of the 10 men's World Cups yet played, even though the Boks weren't at the first two because of apartheid.

So there will be no avoiding in Pune on Wednesday the echoes of this year's final between rugby's giants, which was played in Paris in the early hours of Sunday morning (IST). The South Africans claimed a record fourth triumph, winning a thunderous, controversy-strewn classic by a single point.

Men's World Cup matches involving the countries' cricket teams have have been spiced with drama - the 2011 quarterfinal and 2015 semifinal, for instance - but this rivalry isn't as keen as it is in rugby. Maybe that's because New Zealand have beaten South Africa six times in eight meetings. It isn't much of a rivalry if one side wins significantly more often.

But the South Africans will believe they are capable of pulling one back this time. They are among the biggest batting teams at the tournament, and in Chennai on Friday they offered evidence that they have found a way to play under pressure by hanging tough to beat Pakistan by one wicket in the first close match of this World Cup.

The complication, for South Africa, is that the New Zealanders are themselves not averse to piling on the runs. And, of course, Friday's match was not a knockout game - which have tended to prompt meltdowns in the team now led by Temba Bavuma.

The complication, for New Zealand, is that Lockie Ferguson, Kane Williamson and Mark Chapman are carrying significant injuries. Those are problems in three important areas that have made them a competitive team.

The other complication is that, with the semifinal line-up solidifying with each passing match, this game is more about who goes where in the final four than anything else. Both teams will be reasonably confident of making the semis, but will they play Australia or India there? Winning, and losing, on Wednesday will go some way towards answering that question.

New Zealand's other remaining opponents in the league stage are Pakistan and Sri Lanka. They should have the measure of both. But South Africa will be at Eden Gardens on Sunday for a clash with unbeaten India. They won't want to be thinking about what went wrong in Pune as they take the flight to Kolkata.

Cricket matches between New Zealand and South Africa are often distilled to a tussle that pits the former's famous flintiness against the latter's supposedly superior strength. That narrative will again be afoot in this match, but so will something else.

When you grow up in the shadow of rugby and play cricket instead, and you know you have picked the sport that doesn't grab your compatriots' attention nearly as much as the other, you also know you need to take every chance to show them why you have made the right choice. This, for all involved, is one such chance.

When: November 1, 2023 at 14:00 IST

Where: Maharashtra Cricket Association Stadium, Pune

What to expect: A small target - 260 wasn't reached in either of the first innings in the two matches played here in the tournament - despite the decent pitch and small outfield. Hot and dry, but less humid than other venues.

Teams:

New Zealand

Kane Williamson has been ruled out of the match. "Williamson has batted in the nets the last two days but has been ruled out of a return to match action tomorrow," Black Caps informed on match eve. "He will be assessed again ahead of the side's next match against Pakistan."

The Kiwis are still awaiting news on Lockie Ferguson's Achilles and Mark Chapman's calf. Tom Latham was particularly non-committal about them at his press conference on Tuesday.

Without certainty on those players it's difficult to see which way New Zealand will lean to pick their XI. That said, all three trained on Tuesday.

Tactics & strategy

New Zealand have made four of the top 20 totals in the tournament, and Rachin Ravindra, Daryl Mitchell and Devon Conway have scored centuries. So we can bank on them being competitive with the bat. Mitchell Santner and Matt Henry are their two most successful bowlers and are among the top 10 wicket-takers, and then there's Glenn Phillips, whose off-spin became less part-time and more frontline every time he gives it a whirl.

Probable XI: Devon Conway, Will Young, Rachin Ravindra, Daryl Mitchell, Tom Latham (capt), Glenn Phillips, Jimmy Neesham, Mitchell Santner, Matt Henry, Trent Boult, Lockie Ferguson

South Africa

Kagiso Rabada missed the match against Pakistan in Chennai on Friday because of lower back spasms, but should be good to go on Wednesday. South Africa's only other question is whether to pick Tabraiz Shamsi as a second spinner rather than Gerald Coetzee, their fast bowling enforcer.

Tactics & strategy

Like their opponents, South Africa own four of the 20 biggest totals at this World Cup. Quinton de Kock has scored half of their six hundreds, and Aiden Markram, Heinrich Klaasen and Rassie van der Dussen the others. Runs are not the issue, and they showed against Pakistan that they can chase. Also like the Kiwis, the Saffers have two of the leading 10 wicket-takers in Marco Jansen and Gerald Coetzee. But they have been liable to leak a few too many runs.

Probable XI: Temba Bavuma (capt), Quinton de Kock, Rassie van der Dussen, Aiden Markram, Heinrich Klaasen, David Miller, Marco Jansen, Kagiso Rabada, Keshav Maharaj, Gerald Coetzee, Lungi Ngidi

Did you know?

- Two of the three centuries in World Cup games between the teams - Herschelle Gibbs' 143 and Stephen Fleming's 134 not out - were scored in the same match, at the Wanderers in 2003.

- Jacob Oram's 4/39 in the 2011 quarterfinal in Dhaka is the only instance of a bowler claiming more than three wickets in World Cup matches involving these teams.

- Two of the Kiwis' six World Cup wins were in knockout games: the 2011 quarterfinal and the 2015 semifinal.

What they said:

"There were two special sporting events going on, and one's just finished. But we feel the support we have back home. We certainly understand the country is right behind us and hopefully we can make them proud." - Tom Latham says his team can feel the love despite the nation's obsession with the rugby World Cup.

"The result [against Pakistan] could have been different, and then we'd be having a different conversation. But the important and heartening thing was to see how some of the guys played under pressure, and that we managed to find a way to get over the line. If we do it again and again, we'll start to accept that we're getting better at winning key moments in pressure games." - Rob Walter on South Africa's relationship with tight contests.

Squads:

New Zealand Squad: Devon Conway, Will Young, Rachin Ravindra, Daryl Mitchell, Tom Latham(w/c), Glenn Phillips, James Neesham, Mitchell Santner, Matt Henry, Lockie Ferguson, Trent Boult, Tim Southee, Ish Sodhi, Mark Chapman

South Africa Squad: Quinton de Kock(w), Temba Bavuma(c), Rassie van der Dussen, Aiden Markram, Heinrich Klaasen, David Miller, Marco Jansen, Gerald Coetzee, Keshav Maharaj, Lungi Ngidi, Tabraiz Shamsi, Reeza Hendricks, Kagiso Rabada, Andile Phehlukwayo, Lizaad Williams