The ODI series is on the line on Wednesday when South Africa and Australia meet in the third match of five in Durban. After two very comfortable victories over the weekend South Africa head into the match knowing a win will tie up the series with two matches to spare. Australia have to win to stay alive in the series so this one is perfectly set up.
South Africa
It has been all too easy for South Africa in this series so far and I guess you would expect that to an extent. They have had home advantage in altitude laden conditions and being the home side they have plenty more options available to them but to deliver two complete performances will be most pleasing for them.
Delivering those performances without Hashim Amla and AB de Villiers is all the more remarkable and another such performance here would allow them to rest their key players ahead of the mountain of cricket ahead of them this winter.
Australia
The Australians went into this series as the best side in the world in this format of the game and while they don’t have their best bowling attack with them that is no excuse for a couple of sub-par performances with the bat where by and large they are at full strength for the most part.
Australia’s young and inexperienced bowlers have been found out in a big way so far in the series although this is really the first match they will have had conditions they are used to so maybe we can cut them some slack and judge them purely on what happens here. One thing is for sure though, if Australia are to keep the series alive their bowlers have to perform much better than they have.
Team News
The ongoing debate about whether Hashim Amla can get back into the side for this match looks a pretty simple one from the outside but there appears to be genuine indecision which is incredible. He is fit to return if selected.
Australia surely have to change their bowling attack again. Joe Mennie’s international debut couldn’t have gone a whole lot worse and he is expected to sit this one out. Scott Boland is the man expected to come in for him although Australia could in theory play the extra batsman in Usman Khawaja.
Kingsmead
There have been 41 previous ODIs on this ground with South Africa featuring in 33 of them. They have a winning record in those matches with 18 wins to 10 defeats with a tie and four no results. Australia have an excellent record here. They’ve won six of their eight matches and need to make that seven in nine to keep the series alive.
This is a good cricket wicket. Batsmen if they work hard to get in can score runs while bowlers are always in the game. The intriguing element to the place is the outfield which has been re-laid after the shambles of the Test match with New Zealand here a couple of months ago.
Betting
I’m going to leave the match result alone here although I must admit I am very tempted with Australia in this match. I’d need to see something from their bowlers first before I can pull the trigger on them though. I am going to take a couple of bets though.
The first is in the battle of the captains where the half a run start Faf du Plessis gets over Steve Smith is enough to tempt me in. Du Plessis has beaten Smith in both matches so far and when a side is struggling you tend to find the pressures of captaincy affect the run scoring and we’re seeing that from Smith at the minute with scores of just 8 and 14 in the series to date. This comes soon after an early exit from the Sri Lankan tour so maybe all isn’t right with the Aussie captain.
Du Plessis seems to be having no such problems. He was unbeaten at Centurion when the target was chased down and he plundered a top class century in Johannesburg at the weekend. He looks in great form and with him facing much the worse bowling attack of the two I like him to match if not better Smith’s score here.
I’m also going to take a chance on John Hastings in the top Australia batsman market. He has already scored a 50 in this series and this is a ground where the new ball might do a bit and it wouldn’t be the biggest surprise in the world if Steyn and Rabada get into this Australian order. It is a long shot of course but at 50/1 we can pay to see how close it comes to paying out.
Tips
Back F.du Plessis (+0.5 runs) to beat S.Smith for a 4/10 stake at 1.87 with Coral
Back him here:
Back J.Hastings Top Australia Batsman for a 1/10 stake at 51.00 with Ladbrokes
Back him here:
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