The St Kitts leg of the West Indies Tri-Nations draws to a close on Wednesday evening when the home side take on South Africa for the second time in the tournament.
This tournament became really interesting on Monday when the West Indies knocked off Australia and having already previously beaten South Africa the home side can take a massive leap towards the final with a win here.
South Africa have lost to the West Indies and Australia in the tournament but they have also beaten Australia as well and if they win here then all three sides sit on two wins for the competition heading to Barbados.
West Indies
It was hard not to be impressed with the West Indies’ run chase against Australia last time out. They were always ahead of the run rate and then the time for knocking it around came they did that and when the bad ball came they punished them to the full.
Although the run chase was good it was largely down to the bowlers restricting Australia in the second half of the innings that made it as comfortable as it was. Whisper it quietly but the side the Windies have used in this series are looking very handy indeed.
South Africa
It looked like South Africa were absolutely cruising in the opening match of this tournament at Warner Park but then they suffered a collapse which took them from the jaws of victory tumbling to a pretty ordinary defeat.
If South Africa are to compete in the final and win it then their batsmen are going to have to deliver an awful lot more than they have done in the tournament to date. The trouble is their tail is so long they daren’t express themselves at the top of the innings in case they expose that tail too soon.
Team News
West Indies are unlikely to change their side as long as the niggle Suliemann Benn looked to pick up on Monday is nothing serious. If it is then Ashley Nurse could be the man to come into the side as his replacement.
Chris Morris and Morne Morkel have to be knocking at the door to come back into the side. I’d be surprised if Morris doesn’t play here because South Africa are lacking batting depth. Kyle Abbott could be the one to make way for him.
Warner Park
The trend of sides batting first and winning was bucked in the previous match here but the wicket certainly tired during that West Indies innings so I would expect the trend to get back on course here. We also saw some more turn towards the end of that second match and natural wear and tear on the square would suggest we can expect some more here.
Betting
I’ve an inkling for the West Indies here I have to say but they don’t tend to back up performances too well which is a concern. I’ll definitely jump on board if they bat first though because the likes of Narine and Benn will be very tough to score from later in the evening.
Prior to the match beginning I’m going to hit the side markets for a couple of bets. The first one being the performance of Carlos Brathwaite.
I’ve already flagged up in this series the impact Brathwaite can have on a cricket match. Twice in the three matches he has played he has taken two wickets and a catch and yet he still gets a line set up at 29.5 which seems quite mad really.
We haven’t seen Brathwaite’s best with the bat in this series but if he is going to bat well anywhere it is going to be here where the wicket has a bit of pace and the boundaries are tiny so if the South Africans get him into bat I wouldn’t be surprised to see him cover this total with the bat.
I like Brathwaite. He’s a very clever cricketer and has so much point scoring potential that taking the overs on this line is an automatic no brainer.
If Chris Morris does come into this South African side there are worse bets out there than to take him to be the top South Africa batsman. If we go back to the previous game between the two only Rilee Rossouw scored more than 31 and he isn’t around anymore.
You would expect one of the top four to make a score but none of them have really convinced in this series so far so it could be that someone down the order has to rebuild and do some damage.
It is pushing it to call Morris a genuine batsman but he can bat and if he’s going to bat well it will be on these type of grounds where he can hit through the line to small boundaries. If he gets in and is chasing something manageable I wouldn’t be too surprised if he slaps 40 odd or so and nicks the top score.
Tips
Back C.Brathwaite’s Performance – Over 29.5pts for a 4/10 stake at 1.83 with Bet365
Back it here:
Back C.Morris Top South Africa Batsman for a 1/10 stake at 21.00 with 888Sport
Back him here:
