The brief but entertaining T20 series between West Indies and South Africa concludes on Tuesday evening when the two sides are back in action for the third time in the scheduled three matches with the Brian Lara Academy Stadium again the venue.
It could be said that this entire series has been dead rubbers but the final match of it especially is because West Indies won the first two matches to claim the spoils. This game either delivers a whitewash or a bit of pride for the tourists.
West Indies
While we are a fair way out from the next T20 World Cup, it is never a bad thing when a tournament like that comes along for a side to show that they can win a match regardless of whether they bat first or second. That is exactly what West Indies have done here so that certainly bodes well for them. They won the opening game of the series batting second and with plenty in hand. They had to work harder batting first in the second game but still got the job done.
The big positive for West Indies in this series is that despite using a new opening pair, potentially with the next World Cup in mind even though it is so far away, they have got off to decent starts with the bat which has taken the pressure off a middle order that can cause carnage in no time at all. The other positive is they are beginning to build up a depth of death bowling options and that certainly won’t be a bad thing by the time the 2026 World Cup comes along.
South Africa
While I don’t think this series was high up on the priority list for South Africa, I do think there will be a bit of disappointment in the way they have lost it so quickly. They were ripped apart in the opening game of the series, which can happen when there isn’t a lot of preparation time and people are coming in from all over the place and especially if you catch a team like West Indies on the wrong day, but the way they lost the second match will be most disappointing because they were in complete control of that.
They looked to be cruising to victory with the bat in the second game but out of nowhere started panicking and in the end they didn’t even threaten the win in the closing stages. They could probably have shrugged off the first game because an inexperienced bowling unit was what got carted but there wasn’t too much in terms of a lack of experience in the batting which couldn’t handle the pressure of the run chase in the second one. They have one last chance to shown that they can compete with this West Indies side.
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Team News
Now that West Indies have won the series it will be interesting to see whether they make changes and how many of them they do make. Obed McCoy and Fabian Allen might be the two most likely to come in should they change things up.
South Africa made a couple of changes for the previous game and while it helped them with the ball they couldn’t get it done with the bat so Wiaan Mulder is an option for them. Jason Smith will be hoping for a debut here too.
Betting
This feels like another chance for a high scoring match to me. You would imagine the bowling attack is only going to get weaker for this final game with absolutely nothing on it and there is no guarantee that the batting drops off any so after a couple of high scoring games we shouldn’t think that the scoring is going to drop off here. The run line for this one is 327.5 which looks spot on when you consider that there was exactly 328 runs in the second game.
This line got covered comfortably in the first game and it would have flown in for the second one as well if South Africa hadn’t fallen apart at the seams. The consensus is that the pitches will tire but there has been enough rain around in this park of the world for the pitches to stay true and the one thing we have seen in the series to date is that the boundaries are in with the women’s game following the men’s one. There’s no competitive pressure on this one which should make the batters dangerous and I like over 327.5 runs in this match.
Tips
Back Over 327.5 runs for a 3/10 stake at 1.83 with Bet365
