A competitive series between South Africa and Pakistan gets underway in Centurion on Boxing Day when the first Test of three begins and there should be plenty to look forward to over the five days slated for action.
South Africa are looking to return to former glories in this format while Pakistan, with their South African coach Mickey Arthur, will be looking to show that they can be successful as a team away from sub-continent conditions.
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South Africa
Usually South Africa are a very strong outfit in their own conditions and they will be out to show that remains the case here. They will need to switch on to the longer format pretty quickly as for the last six weeks or so they have been playing limited overs cricket and T20 stuff. That change is not the easiest to make so it will be interesting to see how they begin this match.
I think if South Africa are going to have success in this match they are going to need to bat well. Generally the pitch at Centurion is good for batting initially but since AB de Villiers retired there is no doubt that this has become their weakest suit by quite some way. If they can find the right order and put up early series runs it will go a long way to deciding their fate.
Pakistan
In many ways Pakistan are in the same boat in that it might well be their batsmen who decide their fate in the series. It is clearly their weakest suit in this form of the game. Unlike in previous eras the one thing Pakistan will not be beaten by is a lack of preparation and it was not only encouraging that they got a warm up match in ahead of the series but also that they played well in it and won it.
Pakistan have a seam attack that should be suited to these conditions so if their batsmen can put up sizeable runs in the series they are going to have a shot at winning. What Pakistan need to do is forget the recent loss to New Zealand in the UAE. The beauty of cricket these days is that if you do lose a series invariably another one follows quite quickly to allow the chance to make up for it.
Team News
South Africa have doubts over Temba Bavuma ahead of this first Test while the injuries to Vernon Philander and Lundi Ngidi means that Duanne Olivier gets another go in the attack at this level. Dale Steyn will take the new ball.
Pakistan have confirmed that Mohammad Abbas and Shadab Khan are both out for this match. Fakhar Zaman has been passed fit though and he is expected to open the batting alongside Imam-ul-Haq.
SuperSport Park
There have been 23 previous Test matches on this ground and to say that South Africa have an awesome record here probably wouldn’t be doing it justice. They have won 18 of those matches and lost just twice with three of the encounters ending up in a draw. Pakistan have played here twice and based on that South African record it is no surprise that they have lost on both occasions.
I always think this is one of the best cricket wickets in South Africa with plenty in it for the bowlers but if a batsman gets himself in he can certainly use the pace and bounce to his advantage and get some runs under his belt. The quicker outfield gives full value for shots as well.
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Betting
I’ll go with one bet in this match with Asad Shafiq and his performance being the focus of my attention. He has a line which is just 67.5 and that looks far too low to me. Shafiq is an extremely talented and capable batsman and he generally scores runs in all conditions and against all bowling attacks.
I think over two innings he is perfectly able to get to 68pts but if he can’t get there with the bat there is always the chance of the odd catch coming his way as well. However he gets there I’m pretty confident that Shafiq can go beyond his 67.5 line here.
Tips
Back A.Shafiq’s Performance – Over 67.5pts for a 4/10 stake at 1.83 with Bet365
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