The rain frustrated South Africa in the opening ODI with England on Wednesday but the end result was a defeat to begin the series will so the Proteas will be eager to bounce back when the sides meet again in Port Elizabeth on Saturday.
The one good thing to come out of the match for South Africa was that they don’t need to search too hard to see where they went wrong in Bloemfontein. They were abject with the ball and paid the price. Quinton de Kock aside they weren’t particularly great with the bat either so a real improvement is needed here.
Kyle Abbott missed the opening game with an injury which he has now recovered from so his return should in theory spark an immediate improvement with the ball. Kagiso Rabada was rested for the first game but given how bad South Africa were in the field that rest could well be a short lived one.
England weren’t perfect in that first match but they were clear winners. The fact they have improvement in them too given the margin of victory might actually give them some confidence too. They certainly don’t have as much to work on as what the South Africans do.
Chris Jordan had a ropey first match so it will be interesting to see if he gets another go. This England management team have shown reluctance to axe anyone after one bad game but it was that bad he is vulnerable. Chris Woakes or Stuart Broad wait in the wings should Jordan miss out.
St George’s Park in Port Elizabeth is where this second game will take place. This is a day game too so conditions shouldn’t change too much which might make for an even match.
There have been 36 ODIs on this ground in the past of which South Africa have been involved in 29. They have won 18 of those matches with 10 defeats and a no result. England have been here five times. They’ve won twice and lost three times. South Africa have lost their last three matches here. That might be significant.
Matches here don’t tend to be as high scoring and the talk in the build-up is of the seamers having the better of things. Matches in the Ram Slam T20 on this ground were low scoring so there could well be something in that. An early start would do the seamers good too with swing likely to be in play.
If it is a battle of the seamers then that might level things out a little bit but I think we saw in the Test matches that Rabada aside, if he plays, there isn’t a lot for England to worry about. England’s seamers aren’t as strong in this format of the game but they have plenty of them with Stokes playing.
Another thing that could well come into play here is England’s batting depth. David Willey walked to the crease at number 10 on Wednesday which is ridiculous really so if England need runs from down the order they certainly have them. I think that can edge them over the line here.
I’m going to take a wild shot at a top batsman too just in case the wicket is lively and the seamers run amok. If England were to make a pig’s ear of things then someone like Chris Woakes were he to play might be able to rescue the situation. He bats at six for Warwickshire so knows how to assess the state of the game and that might be useful.
I don’t expect him to top score but this would appear to be a game where the scenario for him to top score could present itself and you can see the picture form and at 66/1 I’ll pay to see how much colour the picture has or whether it is just an optical illusion.
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