The opening match of 2019 ICC Cricket World Cup is all set to kick off on Thursday 30th May between host England and South Africa. London’s The Oval stadium will host the first game of world cup’s 12th edition in England & Wales. England-South Africa match will start at 10:30 BST.

Preview

England, the hosts of 2019 world cup is one of the most favorite teams of competition and they’ll be looking to start campaign with a victory over dark horses South Africa in the opening encounter on Thursday. English team recently defeated Pakistan by 4-0 in the ODI series just ahead of the world cup and eventually beat Afghanistan easily in the last warm-up match.

Though team lost first practice game against Australia. That will be interesting to see how English team perform against Proteas who are yet to play a single cricket world cup final. England appeared in three world cup finals but couldn’t win and this year it will be a great opportunity for them to lift the trophy.

Eoin Morgan to rely on his batting lineup that has some got serious power hitters. Roy, Bairstow, Root, Buttler, Stokes and captain himself are the key batsmen in English side. These batsmen can take game away in few overs from the opposition. But it won’t be easy as South Africa has got top class bowling attack that is lead by Kagiso Rabada and Lungi Ngidi.

On the other hand, South African team is also coming into this world cup with top class batsmen like Amla, de Kock, De Plessis. Markram, Duminy and Miller. David Miller and Duminy can really take team to winning way with their ball hitting capabilities.

Predicted Playing-XIs

England

Eoin Morgan (Captain), Jason Roy, Jonny Bairstow, Joe Root, Ben Stokes, Jos Buttler, Moeen Ali, Jofra Archer, Chris Woakes, Liam Plunkett, Adil Rashid.

South Africa

Faf du Plessis (Captain), Hashim Amla, Quinton de Kock, Aiden Markram, JP Duminy, David Miller, Andile Phehlukwayo, Lungi Ngidi, Chris Morris, Kagiso Rabada, Imran Tahir.

Win Predictions

England and South Africa are strong sides in the tournament and being hosts of the cwc19, English team has edge over Proteas in the opening game of world cup 2019. But as per our predictions, South Africa will be favorite to win 1st game and they have 55% win chances over England cricket team.

What are your thoughts on this first match ENG vs SA? Who will win it? Share with us in comments.