We were only due to be having one knockout match in the Pakistan Tri-series but the way the schedule has worked out we have a second one on Wednesday when the host nation take on South Africa for a spot in the final.
Both of these teams have lost their only match in the competition to New Zealand and so they meet in a knockout match here for the right to take on the Kiwis in the final later in the week. The loser will head off to the Champions Trophy with a bit to find.
Pakistan
I think Pakistan will have been disappointed to lose in the opening match of the tournament when they surrendered to New Zealand but the result doesn’t look quite as bad given what the Kiwis did to South Africa in the next game of the competition. They will still want an improvement for this match because the last thing they will want is to go into the tournament that they host next week without a win under their belt. Were they to win here it would set them up nicely.
Pakistan bowled fairly well in the first 40 overs of their bowling innings but let the match get away from them and despite setting themselves up nicely with the bat, they couldn’t handle the pressure of the run chase and three quick wickets falling in a relatively short space of time put a massive dent in their chances. They will be looking to finish both innings off much better here but they do have the confidence of a relatively recent series win over South Africa to fall back on.
South Africa
When you consider the amount of players that they were missing from their Champions Trophy squad because of players going deep in the SA20 competition, South Africa put up a more than credible showing in their first game of the tournament against New Zealand. They are only likely to improve the longer this competition goes on both as more players arrive to reinforce what they have and also as they adjust to the conditions which are different from the ones they have been playing in during the SA20.
South Africa batted well in that loss to the Kiwis and they have batting reinforcements to come into the side for this one too so we should expect another decent showing from them with the bat. The question over the Proteas, both in the remainder of this competition and the Champions Trophy is whether they have enough quality with the ball to get the job done. Usually that would be a given but injuries haven’t helped them in that regard.
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Team News
Pakistan will be forced into at least one change for this match with Haris Rauf being rested after picking up a niggle in the game against New Zealand. Mohammad Hasnain is favourite to replace him while Saud Shakeel could also come into the middle order.
South Africa are expected to strengthen their team with the arrival of some key players. Heinrich Klaasen, Tony de Zorzi and Corbin Bosch are among the men who have arrived and will surely be given a run out to adjust to conditions.
Betting
We have moved away from Lahore over to Karachi for the remainder of the tournament and that means a fresh pitch and in this game at least I believe it means yet another run fest. This is another ground in Pakistan which is renowned to be high scoring and when you consider the bowlers that South Africa are still missing there is even more reason to think that this is going to be a higher scoring encounter than it might ordinarily have been.
We have had eight ODI matches on this ground since cricket returned to Pakistan and the first innings score has been in excess of 280 in six of those matches so immediately a run line of 556.5 looks a little on the low side. Then when you think back to just prior to Christmas when these two met in an ODI series in South Africa where Pakistan put up over 300 in the second and third ODI matches I’ve got to think that this line isn’t going to be high enough here.
Tips
Back Over 556.5 runs for a 3/10 stake at 1.83 with Bet365
