South Africa and India have put the white clothes to one side and got the coloured stuff out to begin a three-match ODI series on Wednesday. The opening match of the three takes place in Paarl and gives us a look at both in the limited overs format.
There isn’t a huge amount of context to these matches because they are not part of the World Cup qualifying system so this is purely three games to blow any cobwebs away for what is another big year of white ball cricket.
South Africa
This has not been the best format for South Africa in recent times. They had a terrible World Cup in England in 2019 so they will know that by the time the next one comes around next year, assuming they qualify safely for it, that they have to put up a better showing in it. That isn’t a guarantee though because the foundations international cricket is working under at the minute with Covid bubbles and things means that one format has to give.
With Test cricket always important in this part of the world and a T20 World Cup later in the year meaning that the shortest format carries plenty of significance, it is likely to be this one which takes a back seat. In saying that, South Africa do need to build up some momentum so the players on the pitch will be expected to win this match and move to the edge of replicating what they achieved against India in the Test series.
India
In contrast to their opponents here, India place a great deal of significance on 50 over cricket. That isn’t likely to change when you consider that they host the next World Cup next year where they will want to be one of the best teams in the competition. They are having to manage players like every other nation, especially with the amount of cricket they play, so while they are going to rest one or two for this series they too will want to win it.
There might be an extra fuel in the fire of the Indians over these three matches after losing the Test series from one up with two to play and in a format where they are very comfortable we might well get to see that. India are usually very good in this format because of the number of bowling options they have and that will serve them well here because even if they rest one or two those coming in from outside will still be of a decent quality.
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Team News
South Africa have confirmed that Kagiso Rabada is going to sit this series out and with Anrich Nortje still out injured the South African bowling depth will be tested. Quinton de Kock comes back in after retiring from Test cricket while Marco Jansen is expected to feature.
Once again there will be no Rohit Sharma for India in this series as he is out injured. KL Rahul has already confirmed that he will open the batting. India are expected to play with a couple of spinners which leaves Jasprit Bumrah and either Shardul Thakur or Bhuvneshwar Kumar with the new ball.
Betting
This is a ground where a lot of runs are generally scored. Both the first and the second ODIs take place at Boland Park and I wouldn’t imagine two pitches will be prepared for matches on Wednesday and Friday so assuming the same pitch will be used for both games, it should play like something of a road in this match. That means this is going to be hard work for the bowlers both on the wicket they are bowling on and the extreme heat expected in this part of the world this week.
That makes me think that we are in for plenty of runs here. India’s batters will enjoy not having to face Kagiso Rabada and Anrich Nortje and can fill their boots accordingly while South Africa could be batting Marco Jansen as low as nine so they are certainly not going to lack for batting depth. This is a pretty tiny ground so the boundaries should be accessible throughout so I’m fully expecting this opening ODI to contain more than 527.5 runs.
Tips
WON – Back Over 527.5 runs for a 3/10 stake at 1.83 with Betway
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