Hamilton, Feb 14: South Africa, one of the favourites of the 2015 World Cup, will take on Zimbabwe in their first match at Seddon Park in Hamilton, New Zealand, on Sunday, February 15.

The South Africans clearly look favourites against their African opponents but one should not forget that Zimbabwe are capable of causing upsets at the highest cricketing stage, as they had done in 1983, 1992 and 1999.

While they beat Australia in their debut match at the World Cup in 1983, they pulled off a surprising 9-run victory over England in 1992. In 1999, Zimbabwe beat India and South Africa.

Neil Johnson's all-round performance (76 and 3 for 27) was the high point of that match [] against the South Africans and the current Zimbabwean outfit will look to to that match for some inspiration. Even then, South African skipper AB De Villiers' super-human form will be a big worry for Elton Chigumbura's side.

These two teams have met twice in the World Cup and it is 1-1 at the moment. South Africa's win came against Zimbabwe at Canberra in the 1992 edition when they overtook the latter's score of 164 by losing just 3 wickets [].

Neil Johnson's all-round performance helped Zim beat SA by 48 runs in 1999

South Africa had a 4-1 victory over the West Indies in a 5-match one-day series but Zimbabwe hardly had any international exposure and only played the two warm-up matches against New Zealand and Sri Lanka. They, however, beat the Lankans in a high-scoring match. The other match remained incomplete due to rain.

Squads:

South Africa: AB de Villiers (c & wk), Hashim Amla, Kyle Abbott, Farhaan Behardien, Quinton de Kock, JP Duminy, Faf du Plessis, Imran Tahir, David Miller, Morne Morkel, Wayne Parnell, Aaron Phangiso, Vernon Philander, Rilee Rossouw, Dale Steyn

Zimbabwe: Elton Chigumbura (c), Sikandar Raza, Regis Chakabva, Tendai Chatara, Chamu Chibhabha, Craig Ervine, Tafadzwa Kamungozi, Hamilton Masakadza, Stuart Matsikenyeri, Solomon Mire, Tawanda Mupariwa, Tinashe Panyangara, Brendan Taylor (wk), Prosper Utseya, Sean Williams

Umpires: Rod Tucker (Australia) and Ranmore Martinesz (Sri Lanka)

TV umpire: Paul Reiffel (AUS)

Match referee: Roshan Mahanama (SRI)

Weather forecast: Partly cloudy and windy. Maximum temp 25 Celsius.

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