South Africa go into the second T20 of their three match series against India on Monday afternoon knowing if they can pick up the win in Cuttack they will land the series with a match to spare.
All eyes will be on India to see if they can bounce back and force what could be a classic decider later in the week but in order to do that they will have to win this second game.
In fairness India were outbowled and outclassed with the bat in the first game and they have a lot of work to do in between matches to come back with the win in this one.
South Africa bowled pretty well until the dew hampered them and they batted sensationally well, so much so that they chased down 200 pretty comfortably with David Miller still in the hutch so they will be full of confidence heading into this match.
India need to find a cutting edge with the ball, particularly at the death of the innings. We saw in the opening game that spin deep in the innings doesn’t work and MS Dhoni’s ploy of bowling a debutant in the final over backfired big time.
South Africa have committed to trialling AB de Villiers at the top of the order so he is likely to continue to open with Hashim Amla. Nobody went drastically bad with the ball in the first game so South Africa are unlikely to make too many changes.
The series has moved from the mountains of Dharamsala to the heat and humidity of Cuttack for this match. The Barabati Stadium in Cuttack is the venue. It will be hosting its first T20 International but it has held ODIs in the past.
The outfield is pretty big here and the ball doesn’t travel as far so we might be looking at a lower scoring game. Usually this wicket is quite slow which is no surprise in the humid conditions but there has been plenty of rain in the lead up to this match so it is unlikely to have been possible to produce a typical Indian wicket and that could have the South Africans interested.
With the rain there has been I think there could be more of a lottery element to this match so rather than get fancy with bets I’m going to keep it pretty simple and take the odds against on South Africa to win.
They were the better side in the first game and have the least to sort out ahead of this match and with the quick turnaround that is likely to benefit them here. I’ll take the tourists to land the series at the first opportunity safe in the knowledge if there is any moisture in the wicket their bowlers are more likely to exploit it.
Back South Africa to win 2nd T20 for a 4/10 stake at 2.10 with Ladbrokes
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