South Africa and Australia will be seeing plenty of each other over the next few months and they collide for the first time over the coming weeks in a best of five match ODI series which begins on Friday.
Australia are the main men when it comes to this format of the game but South Africa are a proud nation who want to be the best in all of the formats so we can be assured that this will be a competitive series throughout.
Schedule
1st ODI – 30 Sept at Centurion
2nd ODI – 2 Oct at Johannesburg
3rd ODI – 5 Oct at Durban
4th ODI – 9 Oct at Port Elizabeth
5th ODI – 12 Oct at Cape Town
South Africa
South Africa head into this series off the back of four bilateral series wins in a row although submerged in amongst them they were involved in a tri-series which Australia won so that shows them that they still have work to do to be the force they want to be in this format of the game.
Injuries and the busy schedule mean that South Africa will be using some of their fringe players throughout this series. AB de Villiers is out with injury so Faf du Plessis will skipper the side in the five matches.
Australia
The world number one side in this format have won 10 of their last 12 series including last year’s World Cup so they will be full of confidence. Their most recent series finished earlier this month which they won 4-1 in Sri Lanka which was no mean feat given the pounding they had taken in the Test matches prior to that.
The heavy schedule and recent workload has meant that Australia have sent something of a second string bowling attack over for this series. They warmed up for the series with an emphatic win over Ireland and whoever they put out we know their competitive spirit will ensure they give their all.
Head to Head
These two have met in 10 previous bilateral series with each winning four of them and they have drawn a couple as well. In South Africa they have each won three series with one draw so there isn’t a lot to split them.
That is reflected in the match wins in South Africa too. Australia have won 20 matches to South Africa’s 17 with one of them tied. The most famous match between the two was the one at Johannesburg 10 years ago when Australia’s 434/4 was chased down in an epic contest.
Betting
With both sides not at full strength in this series I’m reluctant to get too involved in the outright betting although once we’ve seen how it starts there might be the chance to get involved along the way.
There is only one outright bet that I like heading into the series. I did think about dabbling in the Australia batting market but we saw in Sri Lanka that they just send players home at any given point so that puts me off that and makes me head for the South African equivalent market.
AB de Villiers’ absence has opened this market right up and as such we have 3/1 joint favourites Hashim Amla and Quinton de Kock. Faf du Plessis is next at 5/1 along with Rilee Rossouw with JP Duminy 8/1 and David Miller 10/1. It is one of the favourites I like.
Quinton de Kock is fast becoming one of the best one day players in the game and I think he has the potential to do some damage here. He made 82 in the warm up game with Ireland and he heads into the series with 10 centuries in his 64 innings. That is world class whoever you are and it is that sort of record that inspires me to take him at 3s.
Tips
Back Q.de Kock Top South Africa Series Batsman for a 3/10 stake at 4.00 with Unibet
Back him here:
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