South Africa and Australia conclude their mini T20 series on Wednesday and after the latter’s win in Johannesburg on Sunday this third and final game will settle the series. What better setting for a deciding match than the picturesque Cape Town.
South Africa drew first blood in the series in Durban on Friday as David Miller chased down a mid range total but they could never truly get ahead of the game having been forced to bat first in Johannesburg and while they took it deep you always felt Australia were always in control.
Aaron Phangiso’s bowling action has been passed fit for the upcoming T20 World Cup but the talk is that he will keep working on his action behind closed doors and stay out of the limelight for a bit longer. Dale Steyn is expected to play again while Hashim Amla might well get a game at the top of the order too.
Australia will be buoyed by the control they managed to maintain in Johannesburg especially given what has happened to them in one day cricket on that ground in the past. Another win would send them to the World Cup in a positive mood with some good form behind them.
Australia were pretty clear they would rotate their side in this series and we’ve seen that. Aaron Finch has opened in both matches and he might sit this one out. Dave Warner has also played both matches but he is getting used to a new position in the batting line up so we expect him to feature. Nathan Coulter-Nile could return.
Newlands in Cape Town stages this finale. Table Mountain in the background provides a wonderful backdrop for these two sides and this should be a good game albeit the focus is still on the upcoming World Cup.
This is the 14th T20 international to be held on this ground and the second of the summer after South Africa’s thrilling final ball win over England last month. That was South Africa’s third win here in six outings while Australia have won four of their five matches on this ground. Having won the previous match as well you would have to give them the edge.
I’m not going to bet on the match outcome in this game because I expect the sides to be much changed given that this is the last game before both land in India. I’d probably side with Australia if I was betting but there is too much doubt there.
One thing we do know is that the wicket here plays a little tacky. It was very two paced when England were here last month and as a result England almost defended a meagre 134. You could argue they should have defended it.
With that in mind I think the sixes line could be a little high at 11.5. These two bowling attacks are pretty tough to score from in these conditions as we saw in Durban where the two sides hit just 13 sixes in much better batting conditions.
England and South Africa managed just five sixes between them in that match here last month and I’m expecting conditions to be similar so at more than double that total I think the sixes line is a touch too high here.
Back Under 11.5 sixes for a 4/10 stake at 1.83 with Sportingbet
