South Africa secured their ongoing Test series against India when they won the second Test of three last week but that does not mean there is nothing on the line for the two sides when they close off the series in Johannesburg in the third Test which begins on Wednesday.
The Proteas host Australia in a series next month so they will be keen to keep their foot on the gas while India have never been whitewashed by South Africa and will be playing to keep that record intact.
South Africa
The first Test might not have been perfect for South Africa but the second one was a bit closer. They still have improvement in them with the bat but their batsmen can be excused because they are playing on green tops. Realistically all they need on these wickets is two men to get in and score and they are going to be hard to beat.
The reason for that is because their bowling attack is so good. Ironically their attack is that good that they don’t need to doctor the pitches to suit it but when they have conditions in their favour they are so tough to handle. They offer no respite either which keeps the pressure on the opposing batsmen all the time.
India
Although they are 2-0 down in the series there have been positives for India to take and in fairness you would have to say that for periods in each game they have been well in the contest but the longer it goes the stronger South Africa have been and India haven’t been able to raise their game to go with them.
I guess a little predictably in these conditions the one thing that has let the touring side down has been their batting. They have had odd players putting in eye catching innings in both matches but nothing has been able to happen around them and they have not been able to force the South African bowlers into third and fourth spells.
Team News
Although South Africa have won the series they might be unchanged for this match. There is a chance they go in with an all-seam attack in which case Andile Phehlukwayo could come in for Keshav Maharaj.
Bhuvneshwar Kumar is expected to come back in with Hardik Pandya someone who could miss out. There is a little bit of chat about Dinesh Karthik replacing Parthiv Patel but that has not been confirmed.
The Wanderers
There have been 37 previous matches on this ground with South Africa featuring in all of them. They have 15 wins and 11 defeats with 11 draws while India are surprisingly unbeaten on this ground. They have a win and three draws from their four matches here.
The pitch is said to be discernibly green so we can expect the seamers to dominate. There is pace and bounce guaranteed in this track given the altitude in Johannesburg so the battle between bat and ball should be intriguing.
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Betting
I’m not really one for betting on dead rubbers although I do think there will be a result here. I don’t foresee a draw in this match but South Africa are a little short for my liking so I will go to a player performance for a bet.
Mohammad Shami had a great game in Centurion where he took five wickets and scored 29 runs for a total of 129pts and I expect him to go well on this track too. He can get seam movement but he is skiddy enough to work the pace and bounce in his favour too so I’m expecting plenty of wickets from him. His line this time is 85.5 which needs five wickets but realistically we can expect him to get six runs so four wickets should be enough. I’ve got to think in these conditions he’ll get them.
Tips
WON – Back M.Shami’s Performance – Over 85.5pts for a 4/10 stake at 1.83 with Bet365
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