South Africa and England continue their ODI series on Sunday when the two sides meet for a second time in the three matches that are scheduled, with Bloemfontein once again being the host of the contest.
South Africa not only drew first blood in the opening ODI on Friday but kept their automatic qualification hopes for the World Cup alive. England looked a jaded outfit in that first game and need to find something here to level the series.
South Africa
It was a good win for South Africa in that opening match for a few reasons. The obvious one is the pressure they are playing under with the way the World Cup qualifying picture has come about but the other reason why it was a good win was because they were well behind halfway through the England run chase. Rather than accept defeat, they dug in and turned things around and that should give them plenty of confidence here.
The positive for the Proteas is there is a lot more to come from them. They didn’t really maximise the last 15 overs with the bat in the opening game and probably fell short of par as a result. They can also bowl even better with the new nut as well so you would say that South Africa are in a great place because they are 1-0 up in the series and will probably come on for the run and have things to put right as well.
England
There might well have been an element of England needing the run in that opening game but I think they would still have been disappointed to lose it, especially from the position they had got themselves into in the middle of their run chase, particularly having fought back so well with the ball as well. You get the feeling this isn’t massively high up on the England priority list but after three tame defeats in Australia a couple of months ago, they could do with arresting their 50 over slump at some point.
It was a bit of a surprise that England didn’t get the job done in the opening game after setting it up so well with the bat. It did highlight the need to find a finisher in the 50 over format of the game with Ben Stokes having given up ODI cricket. The obvious positive was the return to form of Jason Roy at the top of the innings and they will hope that from remains for this one. England just need to be tidier at the key moments but they are starting to lose those most often than is ideal at the minute.
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Team News
South Africa looked a little light with the bat in the opening game which is why they were unable to maximise the last 15 overs of their innings. It remains to be seen whether they can squeeze Marco Jansen in there to lengthen the batting.
England will surely rest Jofra Archer as they did with all their bowlers in Pakistan. Chris Woakes would probably be a replacement for him. Reece Topley could also come in with perhaps David Willey getting a rest.
Betting
I’m not sure this is going to be the easiest match to bet on because with it starting around 36 hours after the last one finished then I would imagine both sides are going to rotate their stock but we don’t truly know who will play and how they will do it so I’m reluctant to get involved in too many lines or match betting or anything like that. There is one bet which I’ll have a go at though and that comes in the form of a player performance.
The player in question is Aiden Markram who has a performance line of 38.5 but I suspect he’ll have a big part to play in this match. This is a day game on the same square which the first game was played on and the temperatures are expected to be warm so spin could be king in this match and with potentially five of the top eight for England being left-handers off spin in particular could be key. That means I expect Markram to bowl more than the two overs he sent down in the opening game. He has been in good form with the ball in the SA20 competition so I wouldn’t be surprised if he challenges this line with the ball but he is also likely to score with the bat too and shouldn’t field too far from the bat so there are many ways for him to get to 39 points.
Tips
Back A.Markram’s Performance – Over 38.5pts for a 3/10 stake at 1.83 with Bet365
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