England Champions vs South Africa Champions Head-to-Head Ahead of World Championship of Legends 2025

England Champions vs South Africa Champions  WCL Overall Head-to-Head 

In the history of the WCL tournament, the England Champions and South Africa Champions clashed once with each other in 2024. In a close contest held on 4th July, England defeated South Africa and won the match by 9 wickets at Edgbaston in Birmingham. 

The table below shows ENG-C vs SA-C head-to-head records ahead of WCL 2025:

England Champions vs South Africa Champions Champs Squad

England Champs squad

Eoin Morgan, Moeen Ali, Ian Bell, Alastair Cook, Ravi Bopara, Samit Patel,  Chris Tremlett, Liam Plunkett, Dimitri Mascarenhas, Ajmal Shahzad, Phil Mustard, Tim Ambrose, Stuart Meaker, Ryan Sidebottom, Usman Afzaal. 

South Africa Champs squad:

 AB de Villiers, Chris Morris, Albie Morkel, Hashim Amla, JP Duminy, Imran Tahir, JJ Smuts, Wayne Parnell, Hardus Viljoen, Richard Levi, Dane Vilas, SJ Erwee, Duanne Olivier, Morne van Wyk, Aaron Phangiso.

Grace Road, Leicester WCL Stats and Records

Leicester’s Grace Road will host its first World Championship of the Legends match between England and South Africa Champions, which is scheduled at 9:00 PM on 24 July 2025. This will be the first ever WCL game, Grace Road hosts in the second season of the tournament. 

The venue has been selected to organise a total of four WCL matches in the 2025 season. The pitch of the Grace Road is balanced and  often provides thrilling domestic games due to its long boundaries and close contests in the limited overs. 

Here are the overall details of the Grace Road, Leicester WCL records and stats ahead of the upcoming ENG-C vs SA-C match no. 8 of WCL 2025.

Pitch Report of Grace Road, Leicester, Ahead of EDC vs SAC 

The Grace Road pitch offers a balanced surface, which is an equal opportunity for both batters and bowlers. The pitch has one of the largest boundaries in Domestic Cricket, second only to The Oval. It means there will be limited boundary scoring. The square boundaries are shorter, but the straight boundaries are longer, which takes an effort and strategy to score a run.

In limited-overs cricket, generally in T20 cricket, the new ball gets enough bounce and supports the pacers. Especially in the initial overs, pacers can take full advantage of the pitch. The Grace Road favours more pacers than spinners, who can get assistance in the later overs or generally in the middle overs. As the game progresses, the batsman comes into the light and gets favours, particularly in the second innings or under floodlights, the pitch often settles, becoming more batsman-friendly. The ball comes onto the bat nicely, aiding stroke play, especially in chases. The average inning score of the pitch is 165 to 168.   

England Champions vs South Africa Champions Top Players

Here are the top players for both SAC vs ENGC  in the upcoming 6th match of the WCL 2025: 

England Champions Top Players

Stuart Meaker is currently one of the most wicket-takers of the ENG Champions in the WCL 2 season. Meaker is a right-arm skiddy pacer who often bowls at the above the speed of 90 mph. In his last game against the WI Champions, Meaker scalped 4 wickets with an economy rate of 6.00 while conceding 24 runs in 4 overs.  Ajmal Shahzad is another pick for the top players who scalped three wickets of the West Indies with an impressive economy rate of 2.00.

So far, the English top-order batter hasn’t impressed much, but the middle order, especially 

Samit Patel, Ravi Bopara have been handling England’s scorecard. Samit Patel, a left-arm orthodox bowler, is also a middle-order batsman. In the previous games, against WI, Samit Patel scored a half-century of 52 in just 36 balls, including 3 fours and 4 sixes. Ravi Bopara is the batting all-rounder who keeps performing well in the tournament. He scored 24 runs off 22 balls and gave an important partnership for England against the West Indies. 

South Africa Champions Top Players

In the last match against India Champions, AB de Villiers bagged 63 runs off 30 balls, including 3 fours and 4  sixes. He led the SA Champions successfully to their second triumph in the tournament by defeating the IND champions with the DLS method by 88 runs. De Villiers has a history of dominating the English bowling attack, from spin to pace, which makes him one of the top players. He is likely to play at No. 3 or 4 in the upcoming match at Grace Road. Hasim Amla is the second pick for the top player, known for anchoring the innings. In the previous match, Hashim started the match on a good note, scoring 22 off 19 runs. 

Speaking of bowlers, Aaron Phangiso has been consistently a top bowler in the WCL tournament. With 3 wickets in his last game, Phangiso is the top player of the South Africa Champions. Imran Tahir, a leg spinner who is familiar with the English spinning-friendly pitches. In his previous match, Tahir took two wickets of the India Champions and restricted them from chasing the score. Wayne Parnell is a left-arm pacer who can be used in combination with right-handed batter, known for his ability to swing the ball early and bowl tight lines. He also scalped the two wickets with an economy rate of 7.20.