South Africa and Pakistan head to Centurion on Wednesday to continue what has been an excellent T20 series so far. Two matches remain in the series and the sides are dead level going into this third game so there is all to play for now.
As well as preparing for the World T20 later in the year, both sides know that if they can come out on top in this one they will be guaranteed a share of the series ahead of the last game at the same venue on Friday.
South Africa
After narrowly missing out in the opening match of the series, South Africa took full advantage of a second encounter in Johannesburg. They didn’t just win that second game, they overwhelmed their opponents with one of the more one-sided contests you will see in this format and the margin of victory in terms of balls remaining completely reflected the encounter. Their task now is to replicate that performance in the slightly more normal conditions of Centurion.
The good thing for South Africa for the remainder of the series is that there is probably even more to come from them with the bat. The key will be whether they can restrict Pakistan with their bowling attack on this pitch which is a low lower and slower than the one in Johannesburg. I said ahead of the second game that chasing might be the best formula for South Africa and that might definitely be the case at this venue.
Pakistan
There is no doubt that Pakistan disappointed in the previous game. It was like they went after a score that required a lot of risks when actually just batting sensibly and building a platform was the way to go. As it turned out having lost a couple of wickets in the early overs they were as good as dead and buried inside the first powerplay and never really recovered from that. It also wasn’t a help that their captain Babar Azam batted so slowly.
He is likely to be better suited by the conditions here which will help Pakistan and they will be buoyed by the confidence of knowing that they have won both the ODIs that were held on this ground earlier in the tour. Conditions should suit their bowlers much more than Johannesburg and it will certainly suit their batsmen better so Pakistan will be confident that they can go on and win the series from here on in.
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Team News
We’re still waiting to see Kyle Vereynne in this T20 series which is something of a surprise. He might be kept waiting if Rassie van der Dussen is fit to come back into the side, or if South Africa stick with a winning combination.
Pakistan might well have a look at the make up of their bowling attack here. One thing which will happen if he has recovered from the rash which kept him out of the last game is Fakhar Zaman will return to the side.
Betting
I’m expecting a higher scoring match than we got in the previous game. There is something about that Johannesburg wicket that doesn’t suit Babar Azam and has the likely mainstay of the Pakistan batting they are likely to be better suited here. He made scores of 103 and 94 in the two ODIs here so clearly he is much more comfortable on this ground. Those ODIs were both pretty high scoring and I don’t see a whole lot different here.
The run line for this match is 338.5 which is probably about right but I still think we’ll get the over to land here. South Africa would have posted 200 if they’d batted their overs in the previous game and with Pakistan much more suited to the ball coming through slightly lower so they should be more comfortable batting on this ground as well. The pitch is still perfectly good for batting here and we saw in the ODIs that the outfield is like lightning. I’ll play the over on the run line.
Tips
WON – Back Over 338.5 runs for a 3/10 stake at 1.83 with Bet365
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