The ODI series between India and South Africa continues on Sunday when the two sides head to Ranchi for the second game of the three. This series is hugely important for South Africa and this is the first of two chances they have of winning it.
South Africa are in danger of having to qualify for the World Cup next year and only wins in all the matches here and when they entertain the Netherlands and England in early 2023 will see them avoid that. India are guaranteed to be in and this offers their fringe players the chance to stake their claim.
India
I think it is fair to say that nobody truly knew how India were going to perform in this ODI series. Their first-choice squad has already left for Australia and the T20 World Cup which has left the second string to pick up the slack for this series. That means that they don’t have much to lose in terms of the lower expectations on their shoulders but they do have a chance to show they can play international cricket at this level and won’t want to let that opportunity pass them by.
India will know their top order has a lot more in it than what they showed in Lucknow and having had a game to experience everything I think we can see them deliver a better showing here. The bowlers generally went well but not for the first time in 2022 David Miller took a game away from the opposition. They just need to tighten up in the key areas, particularly at the death, and they’ll have every chance here you feel.
South Africa
When you consider the pressure that is on South Africa in this series coupled with the fact that some of their minds have to be on the T20 World Cup which is just a week or so away, credit has to go to the tourists for opening the series with a win, especially having been taken to the cleaners in a couple of the T20 matches which came before it. They know they have to keep winning so it is important that they remain focused on the job at hand.
The positive thing from the first game for South Africa is that they won the match despite their top order not really getting going. One or two players are looking for form and they will hope they find that over the course of these remaining two matches. South Africa went pretty well with the ball in the main although they threatened to have their good work undone late on and will just need to be wary of that moving forward this week.
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Team News
India have brought Washington Sundar into the squad as a replacement for Deepak Chahar and after Ravi Bishnoi went the distance in the last game, albeit in conditions which didn’t help him with the rain early in the day, then the all-rounder could replace the youngster.
South Africa have called Marco Jansen into their squad for this series as a replacement for the injured Dwaine Pretorius and he’ll be hoping to get a chance to prove he is the man to go to the T20 World Cup. Tabraiz Shamsi went to all parts in Lucknow and could be replaced.
Betting
We saw 56 boundaries in a 40 over match in the opening game between these two and that was after some pretty sustained rain had delayed the start of the contest and made batting more difficult. We are not expected to have any of those issues here and on a ground where three of the five first innings in past ODIs here have gone beyond 280 I expect to see the boundaries continuing to flow here, especially when you consider who didn’t add many to the total on Lucknow.
Aidan Markram, Shubman Gill and Shikhar Dhawan didn’t contribute any boundaries in Lucknow and they are all pretty regular boundary hitters when they get going so there is a whole lot more to come on top of the 56 we got in that previous game. The boundary line for this one is only two more at 57.5 and with the extra 20 overs, the history of this being a high scoring ground and players tuned into the format and into the series I think we get that covered over the course of the day.
Tips
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