The fourth and final Test match between England and South Africa will get underway at Old Trafford on Friday and it does so with the home side knowing that they have already retained the Basil D’Oliviera Trophy courtesy of taking a 2-1 lead with a win at The Oval.
South Africa can still secure a share of the series if they can find a win in Manchester and after the way this series has played out so far you would be foolish to rule them out of doing that.
England
In two of the three matches in this series England have been excellent. In the other one they were awful and they need to make sure they don’t follow up an emphatic win with a tame defeat like they did after they won the opening match of the series at Lord’s. That defeat at Trent Bridge should act as motivation here.
England have won both the matches they have got in front in so far in the series so that suggests the first couple of days could be crucial for them. If they can bowl with good discipline and bat with the patience and the temperament they showed at The Oval they can be a tough nut to crack. Anything else leaves them exposed.
South Africa
The Proteas have bounced back from a huge defeat once in this series and if they are to get anything out of it they are going to have to do so again. While parts of their defeat at The Oval can be put down to Vernon Philander’s illness the margin of victory suggests that they didn’t play very well throughout.
As with England you get the feeling the first innings is key for South Africa and I dare say they would want to bat first as they seem to be able to set matches up when they do that. That said you would think they will bowl much better here and if they do they should still be a danger if their minds are on the job rather than the plane home.
Team News
England have not committed to their side yet. They will want until the morning of the match but it is unlikely with all the rain around that they will play two spinners so they will either pick the same side or Steven Finn will come in for Dawid Malan.
Vernon Philander was said to be a doubt with a bad back on the eve of the match so he could miss out. Heino Kuhn has been backed by coach and captain so Theunis de Bruyn is going to have to wait for another chance.
Old Trafford
This will be the 78th Test at Old Trafford and the first with the Jimmy Anderson End in place at one end of the ground. England have played in 76 past matches here with 27 wins to 14 defeats. They have drawn 35 times too. South Africa have just one win from nine attempts on this ground.
Usually this is a good cricket wicket. There is usually pace and bounce for the bowlers but if you get in you can score well and get full value for your shots on this wicket but there has been a lot of rain in the lead up to the game so the chances are the pitch will be underprepared which could lead to a slow deck and turgid cricket.
[the_ad_group id=”3624″]
Betting
I’m not going to go too mad for this match with so many question marks regarding how the two sides will play and how the pitch will behave not to mention the mixed forecast and things but there are a couple of bets that I’ll go with.
Joe Root has a 50 in each match in the series so far and he has 50 in his last three knocks at Old Trafford in Test cricket. Despite being a Yorkshireman, Root actually has a decent record on this ground overall and on what should be a pitch which is tough for the bowlers to extract anything from the 5/4 Root raises his bat for a half century in the first innings looks perfectly fair.
Twice in this series I have landed a top batsman bet with Temba Bavuma and I am not going to desert him at this stage. His price has gone down to 7/1 but he should really enjoy conditions here. He has looked one of the best batsmen in the series for the tourists and he could well still have one more top score in him.
Tips
WON – Back J.Root – First Inns 50 for a 3/10 stake at 2.25 with Ladbrokes
Back him here:
WON – Back T.Bavuma Top South Africa Batsman for a 1/10 stake at 8.00 with Betfred
Back him here:
Copyright secured by Digiprove © 2017
