With such a short series in prospect both South Africa and New Zealand will be looking to draw first blood when they meet for the first of three ODIs in Centurion on Wednesday.
Plenty of mentions of that epic World Cup semi-final will be made during this match and that could fuel the fire for South Africa but New Zealand know they have little to lose here and can give this a good go under no pressure.
The winner of this match will go one up with two to play and give themselves a really good chance of winning the series which even though it isn’t the highest profile of series is still likely to be the aim for both teams. After a shared T20 series both will want the spoils in this ODI series.
SuperSport Park in Centurion is the venue for this opening ODI. The teams will be familiar to conditions having played the second T20 here on Sunday. In all this will be the 47th time an ODI has been played on this ground with South Africa having a 20-11 winning record here compared to New Zealand’s zero wins from six matches. The outfield is usually lightning here and the wicket is usually good so we should get a high scoring match.
South Africa go into this match without the likes of Quinton de Kock, JP Duminy, Morne Morkel and potentially Faf du Plessis. De Kock has been dropped while Duminy and Morkel are on paternity leave. Du Plessis missed the T20 series with a knock which could keep him out of this series. Dale Steyn and Vernon Philander come into the squad from the T20s as does Imran Tahir.
New Zealand are using the same squad for the ODIs that they had for the T20s which means that Brendon McCullum, Ross Taylor, Tim Southee and Trent Boult are all still absent. Kane Williamson opened the batting in the T20s but he is likely to drop down to three to allow Tom Latham to open up. Mitchell McClenaghan will lead the attack with the likes of Adam Milne, Doug Bracewell and Matt Henry fighting for spots alongside him.
Having already taken South Africa to win the series 3-0 and Williamson to be the top NZ batsman I’m not going to focus too much on the match outcome from a betting point of view but with the performance lines priced up for this match I will take one of them.
AB de Villiers is quite simply the best one day batsman in the world at the minute and Bet365 are dangling a chunky carrot to have his line at just 42. De Villiers averages 62.50 against New Zealand in ODI cricket and that will be against their first choice bowling attack which this isn’t so the likelihood of him covering the line with the bat has to be high given that his average knock is so high.
Even if he doesn’t cover it fully with the bat we know he is a demon fielder and we saw in the World Cup how he’s not afraid to bowl himself should the need arise. I’m not so sure that need will arise here but at the same time I’m not sure we’ll need it to. In extreme pressure in that World Cup semi he made an impressive 65* and the last time he played New Zealand at Centurion he made 70*. All evidence suggests this line is well within his reach with the bat alone.
Back AB.de Villiers’ Performance – 42pts and over for a 5/10 stake at 1.80 with Bet365
