Test cricket is taking place across the world at the minute and another series gets up and running on Saturday when the first of two matches between local rivals Zimbabwe and South Africa begins in Bulawayo.
Zimbabwe have already played one full nation in Test cricket this summer when they took on England but now they go up against the new World Test Championship winners, who will be playing their first match since that famous success.
Zimbabwe
In the end Zimbabwe were well beaten by England last month but for periods of the match they looked like a side with no shortage of talent at their disposal. In the end the relentless nature of the England team was too much for them but certainly with the bat they offered up enough to suggest that they might not be the cannon fodder that some of the lower ranked teams in Test cricket can be. Their bowling left plenty to be desired in that match at Trent Bridge but they won’t be the only bowling attack to come unstuck against that batting unit.
That bowling attack will need to perform better here but in home conditions and against what you would consider to be a more orthodox batting unit there is every chance of that happening. Zimbabwe will want to win this match but just being competitive and performing for the full five days would be a success. If they can pull off an upset and go one up with one to play then that would be incredible for them moving forward as a side.
South Africa
It is only a couple of weeks since South Africa were crowned the World Test Championship winners but time stops for nobody and here they are beginning their title defence. It is fir to say that these two matches are not high up on their list of priorities and with a T20 World Cup beginning to get closer that is probably fair enough but given that they are defending the mace they won’t go out onto a Test field and be happy to settle for second best.
South Africa have made changes from the side which won at Lord’s but they probably would have done that anyway given how quickly this series comes along. You get the impression that South Africa will be fine with the bat in this match but how dominant they are in the contest will be determined by how a much more inexperienced bowling unit fares. If there is no significant drop off then it is hard to see the Proteas being beaten here.
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Team News
Zimbabwe have been forced into a couple of changes from the defeat to England last month. Ben Curran and Richard Ngarava are both injured which means that Prince Masvaure and Vincent Masekesa could come in for him.
South Africa have rung the changes for this match. They were going to be without Temba Bavuma who is injured anyway but wholesale changes sees debuts being handed out to Lhuan-dre Petorius, Dewald Brevis and Codi Yusuf while Corbin Bosch will be the all-rounder.
Betting
I’ll edge my way into this series while we work out who is playing for whom and what roles they have and everything else. I’m very much approaching this as a match that South Africa will win and probably win it well so then it comes down to deciding who will play how much of a part in the game and in the end I have stumbled on one bet that I like the look of and that comes in the form of a player performance bet for Corbin Bosch.
It looks like Bosch will be the first change seamer and that he will bat at number eight so while you would expect he is only going to see the crease once with the bat, his performance target is low enough at 105.5 to suggest that one innings batting could be fine. If he can knock off the 5.5 points with the bat then five wickets over two innings feels doable, even if it is only getting rid of the tail. Bosch is actually a useful batter. In his only previous Test against Pakistan last December, Bosch made 81* with the bat and took five wickets which suggests he can have a big impact on this match. Either of those performances leaves little for him to do in the rest of the match to cover this performance so I’ll play the over there.
Tips
Back C.Bosch’s Performance – Over 105.5 points for a 3/10 stake at 1.83 with Bet365
