West Indies conclude their tour of South Africa with what is now a deciding T20 match in their three game series. The two sides leave Centurion and head to Johannesburg for what should be an exciting conclusion to the tour.
West Indies drew first blood in this T20 series and immediately looked full of confidence in it but South Africa produced an incredible run chase to level things up on Sunday and now the spoils will be won and lost in this decider.
South Africa
At the halfway mark in the second match, given the daunting task that they faced, South Africa could have been forgiven for sacking off this T20 series and focusing on what is a massive ODI series at the end of the week. They chose not to go down that route though and it proved to be the correct decision because they produced an incredible run chase, which even though they had certain things in their favour, was something quite special.
You could argue that their bowling wasn’t up to scratch in that second game, not that it was great in the first game, but the pitch in Centurion was so good and the boundaries so short that the bowling could still have gone the distance even if it was perfect. There isn’t a huge amount more security for the bowlers at this venue so you would imagine if South Africa are going to win this series then it will be their batters who do it for them.
West Indies
After winning the opening match of the series and then posting a seriously good score in the second one, West Indies could probably have expected to have the series done and dusted before they headed for Johannesburg. Unfortunately they ended up paying the price for winning the toss and now they will have to do it all over again. This time they will hope they can win the toss and then replicate what they did in the first game.
The one thing we can tell from the opening two games is that there is nothing wrong with the West Indies batting. In the main their entire top order have contributed in the opening two games and if they do that again, and happen to bat second in this match, then West Indies should be in a good spot. If their bowlers can just provide another couple of tight overs more than they have in the first two games then joy can come their way.
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Team News
South Africa have been rotating their bowlers throughout this series and with a massive ODI with the Netherlands three days away it wouldn’t be a surprise to see something of a second string attack out here. Lungi Ngidi and Tristan Stubbs are yet to play a part in the series so it would make sense for them to come in.
Yannic Cariah, Shamarh Brooks and Obed McCoy are yet to see the park in this series so it will be interesting to see if West Indies play any of them here. If he is fit you would imagine McCoy will come in for Sheldon Cottrell who had a mare in the second match.
Betting
I don’t think we need to go too deep into the first two matches to see how we should expect West Indies to go about their work in this match. If the bowlers pitch it up to them then it is going to be off and if it is shorter it will go further. They have swung the bat at pretty much everything that came their way in Centurion and here in Johannesburg where the ball flies even further and the boundaries are even shorter we shouldn’t really think much is going to change here.
I find it hard to believe that both Kagiso Rabada and Anrich Nortje are going to play, in fact I wouldn’t at all surprised if neither of them feature in this match given that South Africa have a massive ODI on Friday. I’m not sure I trust the South African batters to continuously clear the ropes here but I certainly do the West Indies ones and you can get 5/6 on them hitting more than 9.5 sixes in this contest. They hit 11 in the 11 over match at Centurion and 22 in the 20 over one. I expect them to get to double figures again in this deciding match.
Tips
Back West Indies – Over 9.5 sixes for a 3/10 stake at 1.83 with Bet365
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