Proteas opt to bat against Australia in rain-threatened semifinal

South Africa won the toss and chose to bat against Australia in the second semifinal of the ongoing ICC ODI World Cup 2023 at Eden Gardens in Kolkata today. 

There remains a heavy cloud cover but despite rain threats looming, the toss took place at the scheduled time. 

While South Africa insist they will not be burdened by scarring from their chequered record in World Cup knockout matches, Australia are counting on having experienced World Cup winners giving them a boost for today's semifinal that has a reserved day allocated on Friday.

Australia make two changes as Marcus Stoinis and Sean Abbott make way for batter Marnus Labuschagne and all-rounder Glenn Maxwell.

South Africa, meanwhile, make one change as Tabraiz Shamsi comes in for pacer Lungi Ngidi.    

Playing XIs:

Australia: 1 Travis Head, 2 David Warner, 3 Mitchell Marsh, 4 Steven Smith, 5 Marnus Labuschagne, 6 Josh Inglis (wk), 7 Glenn Maxwell, 8 Pat Cummins (capt), 9 Mitchell Starc, 10 Adam Zampa, 11 Josh Hazlewood

South Africa: 1 Quinton de Kock (wk), 2 Temba Bavuma (capt), 3 Rassie van der Dussen, 4 Aiden Markram, 5 Heinrich Klaasen, 6 David Miller, 7 Marco Jansen, 8 Keshav Maharaj, 9 Gerald Coetzee, 10 Kagiso Rabada, 11 Tabraiz Shamsi