A very entertaining ODI series between South Africa and Pakistan comes to a close on Wednesday when the two nations head back to Centurion for the third and final game, which happens to be a deciding contest after the Proteas levelled the score on Sunday.
As well as offering up the chance for both nations to win this series, this match will also be the latest contest in the qualifying bid for the 2023 World Cup, so this should be an even more competitive clash than the two which went before it, not that they weren’t competitive.
South Africa
South Africa went into the second match of the series needing to win to set up this decider and that is exactly what they did with a performance that was probably a lot better than the final margin of victory suggested. Unlike in the opening game they were able to keep wickets in hand in the early part of their batting innings without losing any of the scoring rate and took full advantage to post a very daunting looking score.
Despite having a decent enough score on the board, South Africa will needed to get early wickets on a good batting deck and that is exactly what they did. In fact they kept chipping away throughout the innings and that they came close to losing the match was purely down to an individual knock of the absolute highest quality. The task for the second string of South African players is to get as close to that performance level as they possibly can.
Pakistan
After winning the opening match of the series, Pakistan will have been disappointed not to take advantage of their first chance to secure the spoils, although they always knew that they would have this second opportunity, a potentially easier one given that South Africa have lost a lot of talent to the IPL since the end of the last game. What was important was that Pakistan competed in that previous game and didn’t throw the towel in when they looked out of it.
Going into the series the thought was that it would be the Pakistan batting that would determine whether they win or lose it. You always have that niggly concern at the back of your mind that they will do something stupid with the bat in hand, but in the main they have gone quite well. The key thing is that senior and important players have produced so far. If that continues and they keep their poise with the ball you would make Pakistan favourites to secure the series here.
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Team News
South Africa are now without Quinton de Kock, David Miller, Kagiso Rabada, Amrich Nirtje and Lungi Ngidi for this deciding match. Janneman Malan will open the batting and Kyle Verreynne seems the popular replacement for Miller. Lutho Sipamla and Daryn Dupavillon seem expected to come in while Beuran Hendricks is favourite for the other place.
Pakistan might not have lost players to the IPL but they will be without Shadab Khan in this match because injury has ended his tour prematurely. Usman Qadir looks set to step in for him. Haider Ali and Hasan Ali are hoping to get chances before the T20s come around.
Betting
I get why Pakistan are the favourites for this match and shortening all the time but we’re getting to the stage where South Africa are beginning to look like an ounce of value at around the 5/4 mark. Yes they are without five of their better players but it isn’t like they are bringing in duds. Janneman Malan went well against Pakistan in the T20 series in Pakistan recently and Lutho Sipamla, Kyle Verreyne and Beuran Hendricks all have international experience.
The Pakistan batting still concerns me and if Babar Azam and/or Fakhar Zaman go early I wonder what they’ll have left here. I get that Amrich Nortje is missing and that isn’t helpful but there’s still plenty of pace in the South African attack and we should remember that if you take out Fakhar’s remarkable innings in Johannesburg, only Babar made more than 20 for Pakistan. It was a similar story in the first game where one huge partnership dominated their innings. South Africa are weaker with the bat but probably only in an experience sense not a balance sense. The home side just feel overpriced to me, particularly should the big two underperform for Pakistan.
Tips
Back South Africa to win 3rd ODI for a 3/10 stake at 2.25 with 888sport
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