Australia begin their home international summer on Sunday when they entertain South Africa in a limited overs tour which begins with three ODIs ahead of a solitary T20 later in the month. This will be the first time the sides have met since the fallout of the ‘sandpaper gate’ series.
Both these teams will be expecting to be major players at the World Cup next summer and it could very possibly be that they meet in a key knockout match in that tournament so they have three chances apiece to set a bit of a marker down.
Schedule
1st ODI: Nov 4 at Perth
2nd ODI: Nov 9 at Adelaide
3rd ODI: Nov 11 at Hobart
Australia
The first issue for the Australian players will be adjusting to conditions again having spent the last few weeks taking on Pakistan in the UAE. Conditions there are alarmingly different to the ones they will encounter here which might prove to be a slight issue in such a short series. If they can overcome that they should be competitive at least.
It has been almost two years since Australia won an ODI series which is almost unthinkable for a team of their quality and rich tradition in this format of the game. Worse still, they have only won two matches in 17 in their last four bilateral series and they failed to make it out of their group in the Champions Trophy in that time. Statistics suggest Australia are struggling in the 50 over game currently.
South Africa
The Proteas got any rust out of their system with a formulaic win over Zimbabwe in a recent series which probably didn’t really help anyone too much given the poor surfaces the matches were played on. The issue that arose for South Africa in that series was their real struggles with the bat. The pitches were a reason for their sluggish scoring but that might only hide a bigger issue.
That was South Africa’s third series success in four since their poor outing at the Champions Trophy in 2017 but it is fair to say that those three wins were against far inferior opponents in Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Zimbabwe. It will signal a bit of a statement of intent if South Africa can perform well in this series and come away with a convincing win.
Head to Head
These two have met in 11 bilateral ODI series in the past and it is South Africa who hold the slightest of edges having won five of them to the four that Australia have been successful in. There have also been a couple of draws among them as well so history suggests this series could go either way.
It is no different in the match results in those series either. They have played 56 matches in their ODI series with South Africa winning exactly half of them to 26 for Australia. There have been a pair of no results in that time too but assuming the rain stays away from this series it would be a brave man to back 3-0 either way.
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Betting
There is only the one bet I like in this series given that it is only three matches long. I’m never one for steaming into them and I’m not going to change that on this occasion either but one bet does standout and I’m happy to get on it for some interest over the week.
Quinton de Kock is probably South Africa’s best batsman at the present time and one big innings from him at the top of the order should be enough to land him the top scoring honours over the course of it. We know he’ll play all three matches, which might not be the case for everyone and that will be a big advantage. At 5/2 I think de Kock is the one to be on.
Tips
Back Q.de Kock Top South Africa Series Batsman for a 2/10 stake at 3.50 with Bet365
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