The latest cycle of the World Test Championship concludes this week when the two best teams over the two-year period head to Lord’s in London to battle it out in the final when Australia go up against South Africa in the showpiece five-day game.
Australia are the reigning champions and looking to make a successful defence of the crown while South Africa have made it into the final for the first time and will be looking to land a rare piece of global silverware.
South Africa
When you consider that South Africa don’t have a single Test match in their upcoming summer later in the year, which highlights where the format sits in their list of priorities at the minute, you would have to say that it has already been a fantastic achievement by them to make it through to this World Test Championship final. The players on show won’t see this format as below any other though and we can be sure that the Proteas will give this everything they have got.
South Africa have generally been a very good team in away conditions for a while but this is a side, or a batting unit at the very least, which is a bit of a transitional one and as such it will be interesting to see how they go when faced with a top quality bowling attack in a venue that could do a bit to begin with. You get the feeling that if South Africa are going to win this match then their bowlers are going to have to get on top early and have a huge match.
Australia
There are plenty of people who think that Australia are the best Test team in the world right now and were they to win this match and land successive World Test Championship titles then there wouldn’t really be an argument against that. Australia have no weaknesses in their side really and if they can impose themselves on the opposition here then they will be confident with all their experience of winning big titles that they can come out on top here.
There are one or two concerns for Australia. Marnus Labuschagne had a brief spell with Glamorgan recently and did little of note while a number of their players have been playing in the Indian Premier League and will need to make the transition to red ball cricket quite quickly. Australia look super strong with the ball and have a top quality spinner, which could be important because the UK is expected to be hit with a heatwave for the opening three days of the match.
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Team News
Australia have named their team ahead of this match without too many surprises. Marnus Labuschagne is set to be the opening partner for Usman Khawaja with Cameron Green batting at three. Josh Hazlewood is fit to feature and gets the nod.
South Africa have also named their XI for the game without too many surprises. Wiaan Mulder has the all-rounder spot with Lungi Ngidi getting the nod as the extra seamer. Kagiso Rabada is named in the side too.
Betting
I’ll go with a couple of bets from the outset of this final with the first of them coming in the performance line of the Australia captain Pat Cummins, which feels a little on the low side at 109.5 when you consider that he has a pretty good record against the opponent and on this ground. Against the Proteas, Cummins has 41 wickets in eight matches so he averages five per match against them and were he to perform to his average here we would need just 10 more points from him over the course of the match. At Lord’s, Cummins has 10 wickets in two matches and he has taken a catch in both of those too so an average match with the ball and a catch gets him home here. He is decent enough with the bat too which could be significant so the statistics would suggest that he has a great chance of covering this line.
The other bet that I like is for Cameron Green to top score for Australia in the first innings. There are doubts over the form of Marnus Labuschagne which certainly helps and in the team that Australia announced they have Green down at number three. He is a very accomplished batter who has warmed up for this series with a month or more at Gloucestershire so he will be very used to English conditions. In just nine innings for the Bristol outfit he hit three centuries and a 67* so he goes into this final in decent form with the bat. Green made 51* in his only real innings against South Africa in his Test career and with him not able to bowl in this match he has to justify his selection with the bat which makes me think that the 13/2 on him top scoring first time around could offer up some value.
Tips
Back P.Cummins’ Performance – Over 109.5pts for a 3/10 stake at 1.83 with Bet365
Back C.Green Top Australia 1st Innings Batter for a 1/10 stake at 7.50 with BetVictor
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