Not long after a busy summer of cricket a hectic winter of cricket begins on Friday when South Africa begin a full tour of India, all of which is live on Sky Sports in the UK.
The tour begins with three T20s before the longer format of the limited overs game is showcased. South Africa then conclude the tour with a rare four match Test series so we’ll be seeing plenty of these two in the coming weeks.
A three match T20 series is pretty rare too but it gives us a nice number of matches to focus on some series outrights and it would be folly of us not to take advantage of that.
The first thing we need to point out is that the series takes place in Dharamsala, Cuttack and Kolkata. That is important because the dynamic of those pitches are very different. Dharamsala has a little in it for the pace men which you would think will suit South Africa.
That might be as good as it gets for the Proteas though because the other two wickets will be much slower and will favour spin heavily so that might well play into the hands of India if you believe the notion that South Africa can’t play spin.
I don’t go along with that notion. They’re not as good as India at it but Hashim Amla pretty much blunted Graeme Swann in the past while AB de Villiers destroys spinners for breakfast. It will be hard for South Africa to win one of the last two matches but this is an unpredictable format and nothing is ever that straight forward.
India are deemed to be a strong T20 side, I guess because of the strength and success of the IPL but internationally in their own conditions they only have a 5-5 record from their 10 matches so form players have in the IPL doesn’t get translated to the international arena.
Were South Africa to bat first and stick a decent score up somewhere like Kolkata then the wicket could well slow up enough to allow them to defend a score. Were South Africa to take advantage of conditions in Dharamsala then they would get two chances to seal the series. I don’t see them winning all three matches so the value is on the Proteas to win 2-1.
Markets are also up for the series batsmen markets and they are worth a second look. The Indian one is a tricky market to bet on because they’ve not played a serious T20 for a year so we don’t really know what order they will bat in so I’ll head straight for the South African market.
South Africa’s batting market is a lot stronger this year than it has been for a while. Hashim Amla, AB de Villiers and Faf du Plessis are all world stars in this format of the game while Quinton de Kock has his big days. They are all high up in the betting but this could be one for someone down the order.
I say that because de Kock aside, and I think of the four named he is clearly the weakest, they are all right handers and with India likely to deliver a barrage of left arm spin in this series their outside edge will be in focus all the time. A left hander would have the majority of the deliveries turning into his pads which opens up the leg side for big hits.
JP Duminy is one such person in question. He showed his credentials in the warm up match against India A when he blasted 68 from 32 balls. He showed for Delhi throughout the most recent IPL that he is good in these conditions and at 7/1 he could deliver the one big knock combined with a couple of cameos that gets the job done here.
Back South Africa to win T20 Series 2-1 for a 3/10 stake at 3.00 with Ladbrokes
Back JP.Duminy Top South Africa Series Batsman for a 1/10 stake at 8.00 with Stan James
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