This relentless English summer of cricket continues on Tuesday when England conclude their international action when they host South Africa in the first of three ODI matches with the opener coming from Headingley.
South Africa have just impressed against Australia in an ODI series and they’ll be looking to replicate that form against England. England looked good against West Indies earlier in the year but this feels a tougher assignment, which should make for some good cricket.
England
It will be interesting to see how England go in this opening match of the series. While they looked good against West Indies earlier in the year, almost three months have passed since then and there has been a Test series for their players to embark on and then The Hundred. The latter means that the England players come into this match with plenty of white ball cricket behind them but the rhythm of the 100 ball game and the 50 over one is completely different.
England have been a work in progress in this format of the game but it won’t be too long before they are focusing on a World Cup in 50 over cricket so you get the feeling that matches against the very top nations are important for them. We know England will go well with the bat overall. They bat deep and have insane quality with the bat but their bowling unit is a work in progress even allowing for the likes of Jofra Archer being around again.
South Africa
There won’t have been too many people who would have expected South Africa to go down under and beat Australia in an ODI series but that is exactly what they did recently. That series had a T20 one before it so they had a chance to get going in the conditions and everything, which they won’t have had here, although pretty much everyone in their XI for this match will have played county cricket or played in England before.
South Africa went very well with the ball in Australia. That probably went a little under the radar because of some of their pyrotechnics with the bat, although by and large they came in a couple of stunning T20 performances. Those bowlers will need to go very well here because they are up against a batting unit that should be in tune and can do some real damage on what is usually a great pitch. It will be interesting to see if they can get after this England bowling unit.
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Team News
England have named their XI and the big talking point is that they are going to give a debut to Hampshire seamer Sonny Baker who impressed in The Hundred. Jamie Smith has retained his spot at the top of the order.
South Africa have also named their XI for this opening match and the contest comes too soon for Kagiso Rabada which means that Nandre Burger and Lungi Ngidi are expected to take the new ball. Wiaan Mulder will be the all-rounder.
Betting
I’m expecting a pretty high scoring three matches here and although there are showers around I think the best way to play the first game is to take the boundaries to pile up at quite a rate. We have seen throughout the matches in The Hundred and Vitality Blast here just how good the pitches are playing and we also had a reminder in those games of how accessible the boundaries are. These two sides don’t really need that but it helps that it is the case.
We have a boundaries line of 62.5 here which sounds a lot but with two teams aggressive with the ball but prepared to be hit in the search of wickets, with South Africa missing their gun bowler and a good pitch and generally fast outfield, it quickly doesn’t sound as high as it might otherwise do. 300 is generally par in this part of the world now and with two teams who both have an all-rounder batting at eight I’m expecting the runs, the big hits and the boundaries to flow throughout this one.
Tips
Back Over 62.5 boundaries for a 3/10 stake at 1.83 with Bet365
