CENTURION, South Africa (AP) — South Africa will be eyeing a place in the World Test Championship final with an all-seam attack against Pakistan in the first test, starting Thursday.
The Proteas need to win one of its remaining two test matches in this WTC cycle to guarantee a place at the Lord’s final next year and captain Temba Bavuma believes expectations have risen in his team to do well in the two-test series.
“There’ll be pressure that comes with that,” Bavuma said. “But to be honest with you, we’re coming into the series to win the series 2-0. We understand that for us to do that, there’s certain things that we need to do as a team: keep things simple, keep doing the small things right, and allow the results to take care of itself.”
South Africa has included four fast bowlers in the lineup with Corbin Bosch, who consistently bowls above 140 kph, set to play his first test at his hometown.
Seasoned fast bowlers Kagiso Rabada and Marco Jansen will team up with Dane Paterson and Bosch to challenge Pakistan's batters on an expected pacey Centurion pitch where fast bowlers have a clear advantage over the last six years, picking up 227 wickets with spinners dismissing only 16 batters.
Heading into the tests, South Africa's top-order batters did struggle against Pakistan in a rare 3-0 ODI whitewash with Tony de Zorzi, Ryan Rickelton and Tristan Stubbs all failing to read the offspin bowling of Salman Ali Agha in the opening game of the series.
“Whether it’s easy, whether it’s hard, we’ve got to find a way to do it,” Bavuma said. “Whatever, I don’t know, trauma that was there ... guys will have to deal with it.”
Pakistan has long been struggling in test matches in South Africa, losing 12 and winning just two of the 15 test matches since it first toured the country in 1995. Pakistan's below-par show in South Africa includes its lowest test score of 49 at the Wanderers in 2013.
Pakistan is lying at No. 7 in the WTC points table and Aaqib Javed is its fourth head coach in this WTC cycle with Mickey Arthur and Mohammad Hafeez quitting after one series. Jason Gillespie resigned just two weeks before Thursday’s test.
Gillespie, who was hired by the Pakistan Cricket Board in April, had a horror start to his two-year contract when Bangladesh swept Pakistan in Pakistan 2-0 in the test series before England won the first test at Multan.
Gillespie was removed from the selection panel and Javed masterminded Pakistan’s back-to-back wins against England on two engineered spinning pitches where Noman Ali and Sajid Khan bagged 39 wickets.
But Pakistan has brought in only Noman Ali for the two-test series in South Africa and is still contemplating whether to follow South Africa and go with an all-out pace attack.
Shaheen Shah Afridi, who played in the preceding white-ball series in South Africa, has been surprisingly left out for the test matches.
Naseem Shah and Babar Azam return to the test fold after missing the last two home tests against England while selectors have recalled seamer Mohammad Abbas after three years with the left-arm seam option of Mir Hamza in the squad.
Abbas took 90 wickets in 25 test matches from 2017 to 21 before he ran out of selectors’ favor despite his consistent performances for Hampshire in England and in domestic first-class cricket.
AP cricket: https://apnews.com/hub/cricket
Pakistan's players pose with the trophy following the third International cricket match between South Africa and Pakistan, at the Wanderers stadium in Johannesburg, South Africa, Sunday, Dec. 22, 2024. (AP Photo/Themba Hadebe)
South Africa's Kagiso Rabada, left, watches on his teammate Temba Bavuma takes a catch during the third International cricket match between South Africa and Pakistan, at the Wanderers stadium in Johannesburg, South Africa, Sunday, Dec. 22, 2024. (AP Photo/Themba Hadebe)
Patrick Mahomes and Travis Kelce exposed a glitch in Pittsburgh's defense during Netflix’s NFL debut on Christmas Day.
The broadcast itself went off just fine, quickly becoming the second-most popular live title on Netflix to date, according to NFL Media.
Mariah Carey opened Wednesday’s doubleheader with a taped performance of “All I Want for Christmas is You” before Mahomes, Kelce and the two-time defending Super Bowl champion Kansas City Chiefs trounced the Steelers 29-10 to clinch the No. 1 seed in the AFC.
There were no signs of streaming issues during the game after Netflix experienced minor blunders at the start of the pregame show. The broadcast opened with roughly 10 seconds of silence because it appeared studio host Kay Adams’ microphone wasn’t turned on.
The Houston Texans hosted the Baltimore Ravens in the second game as the NFL showcased four of the AFC’s top five teams.
The biggest test for the streaming giant should come at halftime of the Ravens-Texans game when Beyoncé performs live at NRG Stadium.
Mahomes threw for 320 yards and three touchdowns and Kelce had eight catches for 84 yards and one score as the Chiefs (15-1) earned a first-round bye and home-field advantage throughout the AFC playoffs. The Steelers (10-6) have lost three straight games and may have to settle for a wild-card spot instead of an AFC North title.
Netflix agreed to a three-year contract in May to broadcast Christmas Day games. The NFL is expected to give the streaming service one of its biggest days since the site launched in 1998.
Netflix’s 282.3 million subscribers in more than 190 countries could stream the games, marking the first time one outlet distributed an NFL game globally. Netflix had the games available in five languages — English, French, Spanish, Portuguese and German.
Netflix had problems streaming the Mike Tyson-Jake Paul fight on Nov. 14. The bout peaked at 65 million concurrent streams, including 38 million concurrent streams in the United States. According to the website Down Detector, nearly 85,000 viewers logged problems with outages or streaming leading up to and during the fight.
There were fewer complaints on Wednesday.
According to NFL Media, viewers in all 50 states tuned in within minutes of the pregame show going live and viewers from nearly 200 countries watched the first game. Before the Ravens-Texans kicked off, Netflix reported that it eclipsed its peak concurrent viewers of any Christmas in the past four years.
The NFL was playing its first games on a Wednesday since the Steelers and Ravens were forced to play on Dec. 2, 2020, because of the COVID-19 pandemic. The only other time the league played on a Wednesday since 1948 was in 2012 when the Giants and Cowboys met in the season opener.
Netflix promoted its own programming in addition to the usual slew of advertisements. The first teaser trailer for “Happy Gilmore 2” was released before kickoff. Adam Sandler is back as Happy Gilmore for the sports comedy that hits the streaming service in 2025. Travis Kelce also was featured in a trailer filled with cameos by celebrities, including Bad Bunny and Kid Cudi.
The NFL played its first games on Christmas Day in 1971 with a pair of divisional playoff games. The league avoided playing on Dec. 25 from 1972-88 and shifted its full slate of games to Saturday if Christmas fell on a Sunday. Since 1989, there will have been 30 games on Christmas, never more than three on that day. But the NFL went out of its way to schedule two games on Wednesday to accommodate its $150 million deal with Netflix.
J.J. Watt, a three-time AP Defensive Player of the Year and brother of Steelers four-time All-Pro edge rusher T.J. Watt, and former NFL wide receiver Nate Burleson shared analyst duties for the Chiefs-Steelers game, with Ian Eagle on play-by-play.
“I’m extremely proud of him and also slightly concerned he’s getting close to a lot of my records,” J.J. Watt said of his younger brother at the start of the broadcast.
Noah Eagle, Ian’s son, will be on play-by-play for the Ravens-Texans game, with former NFL tight end Greg Olsen in the analyst seat.
This wasn’t the first time NFL games aired exclusively on a streaming service. The league’s Thursday night games are in their third season on Amazon Prime Video, Peacock streamed the Packers-Eagles game in São Paulo, Brazil, in Week 1 and Prime Video will stream a wild-card game. Also, the “Sunday Ticket” package moved to YouTube TV last year.
The largest audience for a streamed-exclusive NFL game was 23 million on Peacock for last season’s AFC wild-card game between the Miami Dolphins and Chiefs.
AP Sports Writer Joe Reedy contributed to this report.
AP NFL: https://apnews.com/hub/NFL
Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce (87) makes the catch against Kansas City Chiefs safety Deon Bush (26) during the first half of an NFL football game, Wednesday, Dec. 25, 2024, in Pittsburgh. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar)
Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes (15) passes against the Pittsburgh Steelers during the first half of an NFL football game, Wednesday, Dec. 25, 2024, in Pittsburgh. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar)
