Sports » England vs South Africa - 5th ODI
The 5th and final Natwest one day international between England and South Africa comes from Glamorgan's Swalec Stadium, Cardiff which was formerly known as Sophia Gardens. England come into the match with a 4-0 lead thanks to their win at Lords last Sunday. As well as more bragging rights for England, they are playing for 2nd place in the ICC world rankings here. A win will take England 2nd having been down at 7th earlier in the year. For South Africa, they'll just be playing for some pride.
Cardiff is the most recent of England's international venues. There have been six one day internationals here in total although England have only featured in one of them which ended as a no result due to rain. Perhaps the biggest match here was in 2005 when Bangladesh shocked the world by claiming a 5 wicket win over the seemingly invincible Australians who were world champions at the time. Australia made the highest score at this ground when in 2001 they made 258/3 in reply to Pakistan's 257 all out to win that match.
England are likely to stick with the same side again. There's no need to change a winning side and with Stanford and his millions just around the corner it will do England good to get a settled side together. South Africa are unlikely to rush into changes but Johan Botha could be replaced by Makhaya Ntini. Graeme Smith is definitely out so Jacques Kallis will continue to skipper the side.
There's been a lot of rain around the Cardiff area in the days leading up to this match and the forecast on the day of the game isn't great either. It's unlikely a full match will be played with rain forecast for most of the afternoon. Both sides though will want to play and if and when there is play I would expect the bowlers to be on top. A low scoring, tight tussle looks likely in the final match of the summer for England.
