South Africa laboured to a victory in the opening match of their international summer on Sunday and they will be out to secure the ODI series against Zimbabwe when the two sides meet in Bloemfontein on Wednesday.
Zimbabwe head into the contest knowing that they must win this match to set up a deciding contest later in the week but for the time being just remaining competitive will be the order of the day as they look to rebuild themselves at the top level.
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South Africa
Sport is often described as a game of two halves and that was very much the case for the South Africans in the opening match in Kimberley on Sunday. Their bowlers enjoyed the different conditions that were on offer and found plenty of assistance but their batting never got going and remains a concern for them.
Ever since AB de Villiers retired from international cricket there has been this cloud hanging over the Proteas batting to prove that there is life beyond such an amazing talisman and to date you wouldn’t say that they have been overly convincing at any stage. They have two more matches to find some confidence here ahead of sterner tests that follow.
Zimbabwe
There will have been pleasing factors in the performance of the Zimbabweans in the opening match and then there will have been some things that they would not have been happy with. Clearly their overall batting effort was not good enough but facing South Africa in helpful bowling conditions in a day match was always going to be a tough ask.
The positive from the match for Zimbabwe will have been their response with the ball. When they were only defending a little over 100 to take five scalps with them will have boosted their confidence and perhaps just as importantly it would have made South Africa’s top order think a little bit heading into this second encounter.
Team News
It seems as though Ottis Gibson is expected to give his starters in this series a fair crack at the whip so unless he wants to rest a bowler and bring Dale Steyn into his side, the home team are likely to be unchanged.
Zimbabwe probably put out their best combination in the opening match so their task from here on in is to do what they did in that first match a little bit better. They will want the likes of Brendan Taylor to deliver the goods.
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Betting
I think conditions took both sides by surprise in Kimberley on Sunday but I’m expecting the batsmen to have the better of this one. Manguang Oval is one of the flattest pitches in the country and the batters all enjoy playing on this ground, as evidenced by the number of 300+ scores that have been made here.
Both these sides are better with the bat than they showed in the opening game and if they can do better against the new ball then I expect to see the runs flow. Four of the last five first innings here have seen a score over 300 posted and a couple of the run chases have gone beyond 250. The runs line for this one is 460.5 which is a bit of an overreaction to Sunday. Everything suggests conditions for batting will be much better here and as a result I think this line can be covered.
Tips
Back Over 460.5 runs for a 4/10 stake at 1.83 with Bet365
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