Second slip moves out

Fazalhaq Farooqi to Rickelton, no run, 134.8kph pitched up ball around off, hitn

Fazalhaq Farooqi to Rickelton, no run, good length ball in the tight off-stump channel, Rickelton covers the line and blocks it towards cover-point

Fazalhaq Farooqi to Rickelton, FOUR, to long-off

Fazalhaq Farooqi to Rickelton, no run

Fazalhaq Farooqi to Rickelton, no run, there's inswing first up but it

Rickelton and de Zorzi are at the crease. Rickelton is on strike. Fazalhaq Farooqi will open the attack

Players aged 40-plus on Champions Trophy debut
42y 284d - Donovan Blake (USA) vs AUS, Southampton, 2004
42y 154d - Tony Reid (USA) vs NZ, The Oval, 2004
40y 318d - Mark Johnson (USA) vs NZ, The Oval, 2004
40y 51d - Mohammad Nabi (AFG) vs PAK, Karachi, 2025
40y 25d - Howard Johnson (USA) vs NZ, The Oval, 2004

The players and the umpires make their way out to the middle.

We have made a couple of changes to our Expert XI. Have a look at our new and improved team.

Klaasen has been ruled out of today's contest due to a left elbow soft tissue injury. It's a precautionary measure.

Teams:

Afghanistan (Playing XI): Rahmanullah Gurbaz(w), Ibrahim Zadran, Sediqullah Atal, Rahmat Shah, Hashmatullah Shahidi(c), Azmatullah Omarzai, Gulbadin Naib, Mohammad Nabi, Rashid Khan, Fazalhaq Farooqi, Noor Ahmad

South Africa (Playing XI): Ryan Rickelton(w), Tony de Zorzi, Temba Bavuma(c), Rassie van der Dussen, Aiden Markram, David Miller, Wiaan Mulder, Marco Jansen, Keshav Maharaj, Kagiso Rabada, Lungi Ngidi

Hashmatullah Shahidi: We would have won the toss we would have batted first but the toss is not in our hands and we have to play good cricket. We played some quality cricket against them in Sharjah and we have quality spinners. Hopefully, we do well and can beat them. I will be more happy if we start well and take some wickets in the powerplay and give some momentum to our bowlers in the middle overs.

South Africa have won the toss and have opted to bat

Temba Bavuma;

South Africa have won the toss and have opted to bat

Pitch Report: The weather conditions promise a nice day of cricket, 31 degree Celsius with a nice wind blowing across the stadium. Talking about the boundary dimensions, to my right, it’s 67m and to my left is 62m and it’s 79m down the ground. Some greenery on this surface. There’s some colour, there are some cracks and then it’s hard. I didn’t expect grass but in this case, there might be some sideways movement. The cracks are in the 6-8m area. The South African seamers will be licking their lips looking at this. I will probably have a bowl first, there’s cracks, there’s grass, you want to take a couple of wickets early and put the pressure on the opposition. It may be a bowling surface, reckon Ian Bishop and Dale Steyn.

13:00 Local Time, 08:00 GMT, 13:30 IST: The action shifts back to the National Stadium in Karachi and we'll get the first glimpse of Group B with Afghanistan taking on South Africa. On paper, both teams look strong, but Afghanistan do have the advantage of playing in conditions more suitable for their style of cricket. South Africa arrived early and played a couple of games in the recently concluded tri-series, but domestic T20 commitments meant that it wasn't a first-choice XI for either of the matches that they ended up losing. Injuries have forced them into changes, especially in the bowling front, but the batting remains extremely strong and capable of winning matches by themselves. On the other hand, Afghanistan have been more than decent in recent ICC tournaments - they beat Pakistan, England and Sri Lanka during the 2023 ICC World Cup and followed it up by reaching the semi-finals of the 2024 T20 World Cup, their first-ever entry into a knockout game of an ICC event. It's a confident unit led by Hasmatullah Shahidi and they'll be keen to express themselves in yet another big ticket event.