South Africa and Australia complete their World T20 preparations over the next few days when they face each other in a three match series in the shortest format of the game.
Durban, Johannesburg and Cape Town will host this series which should be a really good watch and a really competitive one too. These two often bring the best out of each other when they meet and when you add in the caveat of the World T20 on the horizon that should ensure even more quality.
South Africa go into the series off the back of a series win over England last month. Although they won it 2-0 and won the second game very easily they should have lost the first game so they are not bullet proof in this format but they do look menacingly strong in their own conditions.
Australia’s confidence took a bit of a battering when they were done up 3-0 by India at home earlier in the year. They got a little bit of morale back when they went to New Zealand and performed better in the longer formats of the game but if we’re honest this is the format that Australia have never truly mastered despite the quality of their domestic competition.
Quinton de Kock missed the T20 series against England but he was in insane nick in the ODIs against them prior to that. He is back for this series but whether he can get in the side ahead of Hashim Amla and AB de Villiers by right remains to be seen. Dale Steyn has been named in the World T20 squad and is back for this series too.
Australia have Aaron Finch back from injury while Nathan Coulter-Nile is another one who has recovered from injury and takes his place in the squad. We can’t even say Australia will be better in these conditions because they played India at home so that would be a concern.
If this was any normal series I would take South Africa to win the series and I might even chance a whitewash but I just can’t bring myself to bet on the outright series because I would expect the full squads to be used and that will have a significant impact on each match.
I was going to take AB de Villiers to top score for South Africa but surely Quinton de Kock plays at some point in this series and I can’t see where he gets in if he doesn’t open so that isn’t good and that puts me off that so in the end I’m left with one bet for the series which is fine as there are plenty more betting opportunities coming up.
I’ll take Imran Tahir to be the Top South Africa Series Bowler. Usually I’d be a little unsure about this one but with Aaron Phangiso recently being picked up for a suspect bowling action it might be that Tahir plays the whole series to get him going ahead of getting to India and if he does play all three games he should go well.
Kyle Abbott and Dale Steyn look set to share the series and you wouldn’t think Australia’s batsmen will have the same problems with Kagiso Rabada that England’s ones did and the same for Chris Morris and David Wiese.
That all leaves Tahir as the most likely option when it comes to taking the most wickets especially having seen what Adil Rashid did to the Australian batsmen in the Big Bash so I’ll take the leggie to go well in this series.
WON – Back I.Tahir Top South Africa Series Bowler for a 2/10 stake at 3.75 with Stan James
