South Africa secured their ODI series with Bangladesh with a match to spare when they rode the brilliance of AB de Villiers on Wednesday and that last match arrives on Sunday when the two sides meet in East London.
This will be the final ODI of the year for both these units so they will be looking to bow out of 50 over cricket in 2017 on a high and with something to build on for 2018 so there should be some competitive cricket played.
South Africa
It has all been a bit too easy for South Africa so far. That would certainly be the case if you had only looked at the scorecards and not watched the matches but actually at times they have had to negotiate spells of pressure. The difference for them is they have some of the best players in the world to do that.
South Africa have historically been one of the best sides in this format of the game and one of the reasons for that has been their ruthlessness in winning matches even when series have been won. With the new ODI league coming into operation soon they have the chance to boost their ranking further in this match.
Bangladesh
I have to admit I have felt quite sorry for Bangladesh in this series. They have plugged away as much as they can but quite simply they don’t have the firepower with the ball to be dangerous in these conditions. That has been quite harsh on their batsmen who actually by and large have coped well with what are alien tracks.
Moving forward Bangladesh need to find a way of combatting top orders on these sorts of wickets. If they can do that then they have the quality of spin in the middle of the innings to become a threat. They have a death expert but sadly he hasn’t been here and he has been missed. All in all though aside from a few more runs Bangladesh are giving all they can.
Team News
Hashim Amla has been rested for this match with the series won. Aiden Markram has been called into the squad but it could be Temba Bavuma who gets the opener job. David Miller could be fit to come back into the side.
Bangladesh will be without Tamim Iqbal for the rest of this tour which is a big blow to their chances. That could see an extra bowler coming into the side to try and give Mortaza the necessary options to restrict South Africa.
Buffalo Park
There have been 21 previous matches held on this ground of which South Africa have played 17 times. They have won 13 and lost just four of those matches so this is a happy hunting ground for them. This will be the first taste of cricket on this ground for Bangladesh.
This is not the highest scoring ground in South Africa. The wicket can play low and sticky so perhaps that will give Bangladesh their best chance of taking something for their efforts in the series.
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Betting
Even allowing for the fact the wicket might help Bangladesh a little more with the number of key players they have missing it is hard to envisage them winning this match. That said with this being a largely dead rubber chasing South Africa on handicaps looks the wrong way to go. I’ll play one bet here from the side markets.
That comes in the form of the runs for Mushfiqur Rahim. The line is set at 28.5 but that looks very low on a man who has a ton and 60 in the first two matches of the series and who looks in the form of his life with the bat right now. I’ve rated Rahim for a long while and I’m surprised he still gets these low lines trotted out at this level. Based on what we’ve seen so far he is in good enough form to surpass that line.
Tips
Back M.Rahim – Over 28.5 runs for a 4/10 stake at 1.83 with Ladbrokes
Back him here:
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