It isn’t just over in Australia where there is Test match action on Boxing Day. After a couple of competitive white ball series, South Africa and Pakistan embrace the red ball for the first of two Test matches which gets underway on Thursday.
SuperSport Park in Centurion will be the venue for this opening match of the two and it is one which is huge for South Africa as they look to play their way into the World Test Championship final. Pakistan will be out to spoil that party.
South Africa
South Africa head into this match having had a fair bit of recent Test action. They were too good for Sri Lanka here in South Africa earlier in the month and that came hot on the heels of a series win in Bangladesh. If they can win both of these matches they will be pushing for a place in the final in 2025 so the pressure is on them to deliver the goods here. Having lost the three 50 over matches they will need to come up with better in this one.
The South Africa bowling attack is usually to be relied upon in these conditions and if they can come up with the goods here then you would imagine the home side will be in with every chance of getting the job done. Their batting is going to be tested here, especially when you consider that potentially more confident players failed to get the job done against a similar attack in the ODI matches. If South Africa can get in front in this match they might find the job a lot easier.
Pakistan
This is the format of the game where Pakistan can be hit or miss. They come into the series off the back of a good win against England back home a couple of months ago but they had to rely on used and turning pitches to get the job done there and they are unlikely to encounter either of those in these matches so they are going to need a much better showing in these two games. The good thing is that even though it was white ball matches, a number of the squad have acclimatised to conditions.
If Pakistan are going to come out on top in this series then they will have to make sure they bat well. They were able to do that in the ODI matches but it wasn’t a completely strong bowling unit they were facing. They will need to bat especially well here because the pitches are usually flat and certainly in the first innings runs have to be put on the board. You would think that the Pakistan bowlers will keep them in the game so the result of this could be down to the batters.
Special Offer
Open a new Sporting Index account and bet £10 on the series (min odds 1/2) to get £20 in free bets (2x£10 free bets) to use on any sports market! Click the image below to take advantage of this great offer! 18+ T&Cs apply. Gamble Responsibly.
Team News
South Africa have already named their XI for this match and they are going in without a recognised spinner as Corbin Bosch is in line to make a debut for the Proteas. That means Keshav Maharaj is going to need to wait until Cape Town to feature.
The big news for Pakistan is that there is no Shaheen Shah Afridi in the bowling attack. Mohammad Abbas has been brought back in from the wilderness and the tourists are expected to go with an all-seam attack which could include Naseem Shah.
Betting
The pitch here is usually good for batting and with that in mind a run line of under 1000 is always going to catch my attention on this ground. The line here is actually only 916.5 which is fairly low when you consider that four innings of 230 will see this line covered. I actually think the batters will go better than that, especially in the first dig so I’m definitely looking at the over on this line. We saw in the one day games that the pitch here is flat and the outfield is lightning fast.
I think South Africa in particular will enjoy batting here against a Pakistan attack which has to be described as missing its best commodity in Afridi. There are chinks in this South African attack though hence why Corbin Bosch has been brought into the ranks so all things being equal the two batting units shouldn’t be under the sort of pressure that they might otherwise have been. I think 916.5 runs is a little too low here.
Tips
Back Over 916.5 runs for a 3/10 stake at 1.83 with Bet365
