The South African international summer gets underway on Friday when the first of three ODI matches against the Netherlands takes place in Centurion. Usually this would be a soft way into a big summer of cricket but with World Cup Super Series points on the line that won’t be the case here.
South Africa will be expected to win this series in emphatic fashion but the Netherlands have seen their opportunities to play the big nations disappear once again after the next World Cup so they’ll be eager to put on a show here.
South Africa
Things have been going pretty well for South Africa in the 20 over game in recent times but they haven’t been faring as well as they would have wanted in the 50 over stuff and as a result of that they need to focus on all the matches they have in this format in the near future just to guarantee they make it into the World Cup without needing a trip to the qualifying competition. There is enough cricket in the schedule as it is without them having to burn more energy playing in that.
South Africa have the same problem in this format of the game as they do the 20 over one in that their balance is not easy to come by. In the T20 stuff they get away with it because of the shortness of the innings but the lack of batting depth in 50 over cricket catches them out. They have a lot of all-rounders in their side which helps then when it comes to the bowling part of the match but all too often they get found out with the bat.
Netherlands
The Netherlands got a taste of playing the big teams in high profile matches at the T20 World Cup recently but they won’t need me to tell them that their campaign there was extremely disappointing. The good thing is they have an immediate chance to show what they can do over these three matches. Although this isn’t a world stage, these matches will be shown around the world so if they can perform here it will do wonders for Dutch and associate cricket.
The Dutch look to have a competitive bowling attack at their disposal here. I think it is fair to say that unit never performed in the T20 World Cup but they should have conditions which suit them a lot better here. The thing they need is for their key batters to stand up and be counted. If they can bat well then there is no reason they can’t be competitive here, and as Ireland showed early in the year, if you can stay with this South Africa side you can get the better of them.
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Team News
South Africa are ringing the second string for this series. Key bowlers such as Kagiso Rabada and Anrich Nortje were being rested as are the likes of Quinton de Kock, Temba Bavuma and Rassie van der Dussen and then Lungi Ngidi was forced to withdraw because of Covid-19 so this will be a very different looking South Africa side on show here.
The Netherlands are taking this very seriously as you would expect them to be doing. They will have to replace Ryan ten Doeschate from their T20 World Cup side because he has now retired into a mentoring role but the likes of Colin Ackermann, Roelof van de Merwe, Fred Klaassen and Brandon Glover are all available.
Betting
This match takes place at Centurion where the wicket is always good for batting and although this is very much a second string South Africa outfit I still see no reason why there won’t be runs on show here. South Africa still have some classy batsmen in their ranks for this match in the likes of Reeza Hendricks and Janneman Malan but their bowling attack doesn’t carry the same potency or extreme pace to it which should see the Netherlands batsmen more comfortable than they might have been.
The run line for this match is only 430.5 so we only really need one decent partnership in each innings to get up to that number. If South Africa bat first and post a score in excess of 250 then the Netherlands can just limp us to the over here but even if the Dutch bat first there is enough depth in their ranks for them to get to the 215 mark. If this wasn’t at a ground where the wicket is good I might have left it alone but on this ground I can’t ignore a 430.5 line.
Tips
Back Over 430.5 runs for a 3/10 stake at 1.83 with Bet365
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