The final match of a really busy day in the T20 World Cup sees the best saved for last as the early pacesetters in Super 12s Group 2, India, take on South Africa in the second game of the day at the Perth Stadium.
These two teams are very nicely placed for a shot at the semi-finals and the winner will have more than one foot in the knockout stages. The losers just make life a little harder for themselves but can approach this with nothing really to lose.
India
The Indians have had an up and down campaign so far but the important thing for them is that they have won both of their matches. They were behind for most of their opening match against Pakistan but got the job done at the death. Their second match against the Netherlands was a much more comfortable outing and would have just fine tuned everything going into what might be the three harder matches in terms of form.
The Indian batting has looked in decent enough touch in their opening two matches and you sense that is important because they are playing the extra batter to make up for a lack of bowling options so the last thing they need is one or two of those batters not contributing. We’ll find out here whether they have the bowling resources to go all the way in this tournament or whether they are going to need the stars to align in their favour.
South Africa
Had it not been for the rain coming down when it did in their opening game, South Africa would be level with India with two wins from their first two matches. That isn’t the case though but they will still go top of the group with a win in this match and would probably only need one win from their last two games to make it through to the semi-final. Defeat here could mean they have to win both of their matches so this is pretty big.
We have seen the South Africa batting go very well in the tournament so far and if that continues then they are going to have a good chance of going all the way in this event. The one thing they just need to finalise going forward in the competition is their best bowling combination. They haven’t quite got that right just yet but when they do they are going to be a tough nut to crack. Some runs for the captain wouldn’t go amiss either.
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Team News
India have no reason to change a side that has won both of its matches so far in the competition. Were they to change it might be to bring Harshal Patel into the side as there is no point in playing two spinners in Perth.
South Africa will forever have questions over the place of Temba Bavuma until the South African captain finds some runs. Reeza Hendricks is waiting in the wings to come into the fold. Tabraiz Shamsi could miss out here with Lungi Ngidi a potential replacement.
Betting
I like three bets over the course of this match with the main one coming in the form of the sixes. The line for this match is 10.5 which I think is very much on the low side. I suspect the line is reflective of the matches we have seen so far on this ground which have yielded sixes totals of four, 12 and four but the two games with four in them contained Afghanistan and Zimbabwe who clearly were not used to pitches like this, unlike these two who will be fine with the pace and the bounce. We know that the straight boundaries here are incredibly short and both these batting units look in sensational form right now so I’m expecting to see this line covered comfortably.
Following on from that, I see no reason why the runs won’t flow in this match. I expect these two teams to come out all guns blazing and take the other on with plenty of batting fire so the 4/1 on both teams to score 170 or more looks appealing. These two sides played a T20 series in India recently and in the second and third match both teams made 170. Conditions are a bit different here but not to the extent that I don’t expect the batters to be the ones on top here. I think the 4/1 on this looks a little on the big side.
I’ll also have a couple of units on Suryakumar Yadav to score 50 or more. He has already scored a 50 in this tournament and in the first two T20s in that series against South Africa earlier in the year he passed 50 as well. I think Yadav is a class act and he has both the wrist work to find the gaps and the natural striking to find these short boundaries. He plays his Indian Premier League cricket at the Wankhede Stadium where there is no shortage of pace and bounce so I don’t see him being inconvenienced by these conditions so the 3/1 that he makes 50 for a ninth time this year.
Tips
Back Over 10.5 sixes for a 4/10 stake at 1.83 with Coral
Back Both teams to score 170 or more for a 1/10 stake at 5.00 with Betfair
Back S.Yadav to score 50 or more for a 2/10 stake at 4.00 with William Hill
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