A fantastic knock from Martin Guptill sent the New Zealand vs South Africa ODI series into a deciding match and that concluding game takes place in Auckland on Saturday. The series had followed a nice pattern with South Africa twice going ahead only for New Zealand to peg them back both times and now the winner of this match will take the series.
New Zealand
All summer long New Zealand have needed someone to get them off to a fast start and to build the confidence of the batting line up to follow and that is exactly what Martin Guptill did in the previous match. No matter what South Africa offered up they couldn’t contain him and in the end the opener eased New Zealand to victory.
Guptill has led the way now and it is up to the rest of the batsmen to follow his lead should they have a chance of winning the series. The one comfort the Kiwis have is that they know their bowling attack is in good touch. Even on these small grounds South Africa still haven’t reached 300 in the series.
South Africa
There is no doubt AB de Villiers’ side will be disappointed not to have won the series already. Having gone 2-1 up with an emphatic performance at Wellington and setting a decent total in the last game in Hamilton the Proteas will have expected to see off New Zealand and allow themselves the chance to rest some players ahead of the Test series.
That opportunity has no longer presented itself though and instead they have to head back to Auckland, a scene of bad recent memories in this format of the game, needing to win to win the series. After coming into the series off the back of a large run of consecutive wins anything other than a series win will feel like a disappointment.
Team News
It is unlikely that New Zealand will play two spinners on this tiny ground so we can expect either Lockie Ferguson or the addition to the squad Matt Henry to replace Jeetan Patel for this decider.
South Africa would have wanted to rest the likes of Kagiso Rabada for this final match but with the series on the line that doesn’t look likely. Ferhaan Behardien may have to watch from the sidelines too.
Eden Park
South Africa won’t want reminding of the last time these two met on this ground in the 50 over game. It was the World Cup semi-final which Grant Elliott produced a masterclass in to guide New Zealand home.
This will be the 76th ODI on this ground. New Zealand have won 34 and lost 34 of the previous matches here while South Africa have won three times with five defeats. They did win the T20 here earlier in the tour though.
Betting
There is a case to be made for New Zealand being value in this match but I don’t see any side value on this ground until we know the outcome of the toss as it is so hard to defend here, as South Africa found out in that semi-final.
I do expect the sixes to fly in this match though and I’m happy to play over 15.5. There is so much hitting potential on show here and the straight boundaries are a mishit for most batsmen these days. Even the square boundaries aren’t the biggest so I’m expecting to see the sixes flow in this decider.
Tips
Back Over 15.5 sixes for a 4/10 stake at 1.91 with Betbright
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