The first of three Test matches between India and South Africa gets underway in the early hours of Wednesday morning for those of us in the UK, when the two sides meet in Visakhapatnam looking to take the early control of proceedings.
Whoever wins this first match will be one up with two to play in the series and will also pocket a nice chunk of points in the battle to make the World Test Championship final in a couple of years time, so there is a lot at stake here.
India
Given that they are at home and want to be the best side in the world in this format you would have to suggest that this might be a bigger match for the home team than the tourists. This is one of the biggest series that India have played at home in a while and if they can come out on top here it would lay down a serious marker for the big series that are not too far away. With that in mind, I would expect to see India come out with a big performance.
You would think over the course of the three matches that the Indian spinners will dominate proceedings and if they can begin doing that here it would certainly do them no harm. There is a chance that with all the rain that has been around that the seamers will be the ones called upon initially. With the batting that they have up their sleeve there isn’t too much pressure on the bowlers anyway.
South Africa
I would imagine that the South Africans will have taken a fair amount of confidence from winning the final T20 match between these two sides. A number of players who was involved in that will play here and while they are completely different formats there is no substitute for winning matches. What they will need to do is take that confidence and turn it into a complete performance if they are to have any chance.
The Proteas don’t have a bad record overseas and it might be that conditions have gone in their favour with all the rain that has been around this part of India. It might bring the seamers more into play and slow the wicket up a little that the turn of the Indian spinners isn’t going to be as tough to face. You would think their record or otherwise in this match will be determined by their batsmen, possibly the weakest element of their game.
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Team News
India are to give Rohit Sharma a go in the opening berth with Murali Vijay a thing of the past it would seem. Hanuma Vihari showed good enough form in the Caribbean to keep his place while there is expected to be a return for Ravi Ashwin.
South Africa are toying over the idea of playing five out and out bowlers which would mean that Quinton de Kock will bat at six with Vernon Philander at seven. Keshav Maharaj looks set to be the only out and out spinner.
Dr. Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy ACA-VDCA Cricket Stadium
There has only been one previous Test match on this ground and it saw India beating England pretty comfortably. As with most decks in this part of the world, the pitch that week was excellent for batting initially only to become more difficult as the match wore on. The seamers had something in it for it early on but in keeping with tradition in this part of the world the longer the match went on the more dominant the spinners became.
Betting
I’m going to ease my way into this series especially with a question mark over the conditions after all the rain we have had in this part of the world in recent times. You would think there would be a real advantage batting first but the truth is we don’t know that for sure and that is another reason why betting on this match is not easy.
In the end I’ll go with just the one bet which comes in the performance markets where Keshav Maharaj is being a little underestimated with a line of 102.5. Usually with bowlers you need them to polish off most of the line in that discipline but I’m not so sure that is the case with the South African spinner because he has improved almost immeasurably with the bat and you could see him getting rid of the 42.5 with the bat leaving him needing three wickets, which in these conditions should really be a minimum requirement from a spinner. Any more than three wickets restricts what he needs with the bat so I like the over here.
Tips
WON – Back K.Maharaj’s Performance – Over 102.5pts for a 4/10 stake at 1.83 with Betfair
Back him here:
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