After a convincing victory in their opening match of the ICC Cricket World Cup South Africa's next assignment comes against Australia in Lucknow on Thursday.
Australia
Australia began their tournament with a 6 wicket defeat to India last Sunday. Despite winning the toss and opting to bat first they could post only 199 before being bowled out in the final over with Steve Smith 46 and Warner 41 the top scorers.
Australia removed both Indian openers for ducks and a third duck for India saw them 3 wickets down with just 2 runs on the board before Kohli (85) and KL Rahul (97) took the game away from Australia. Hazlewood took 3 wickets and Starc the other.
Squads and Team News
This was how Australia lined up last time out.
David Warner, Mitchell Marsh, Steven Smith, Marnus Labuschagne, Glenn Maxwell, Alex Carey (wk), Cameron Green, Pat Cummins (c), Mitchell Starc, Adam Zampa, Josh Hazlewood
Did not play: Sean Abbott, Travis Head, Marcus Stoinis, Josh Inglis
World Cup Form
In the 2019 CWC Australia were runners up in the round robin with 7 wins and 2 defeats and then lost a semi final to England by all of 8 wickets.
Australia have won the CWC title 5 times, the most recent of which was on home soil in 2015 and they have lost just 1 of 6 finals they contested.
South Africa
The Proteas began their tournament against Sri Lanka and they came out on top by all of 102 runs. After being invited to bat first three South African's made tons in a mammoth total of 428/5. Quinton de Kock (100), van der Dussen (108) and Markram (106 off just 54 balls) did the damage and the Proteas cleared the ropes 14 times.
Sri Lanka made 326 in reply with the bulk of their runs coming from the middle order after Marco Jansen removed both openers. Coetzee was top wicket taker with 3 whilst Rabada, Jansen and Maharaj took 2 a piece and Ngidi struck once.
Markram's blistering innings which was the quickest CWC 100 earned him the Man of the Match award.
Squads and Team News
This was how the Proteas lined up last time out.
Quinton de Kock, Temba Bavuma (c), Rassie van der Dussen, Aiden Markram, Heinrich Klaasen (wk), David Miller, Marco Jansen, Gerald Coetzee, Keshav Maharaj, Lungi Ngidi, Kagiso Rabada
Did not play: Andile Phehlukwayo, Lizaad Williams, Tabraiz Shamsi, Reeza Hendricks
World Cup Form
South Africa won just 3 and lost 5 of their 9 round robin matches (1 no result) in CWC 2019 and never threatened the semi finals. The Proteas are bidding to make it to a CWC final for the first time.
Head to Head
Overall the teams have met 108 times with Australia winning 50 to South Africa's 54 with 3 ties and 1 no result.
Australia were in South Africa for a 5 match series last month. They started with 2 wins but were well beaten in the next 3 to lose the series 3-2.
Over the course of the last 5 years South Africa have won 9 and lost 3 of 12 head to heads with Australia.
In CWC 2019 in Manchester South Africa beat Australia by 10 runs.
The Betting
Australia are currently trading at around 7/10 to win the game and South Africa can be backed at around 12/10
Smith (3/1) and Warner (33/10) are the favourites to top score for Australia whilst Quinton de Kock (3/1) and Bavuma (33/10) top the boards to top score for South Africa
Note all prices are correct at the time of writing but are subject to change
The Verdict
Given they turned a 2-0 deficit into a 3-2 series win against Australia recently plus the terrific batting effort against Sri Lanka the Proteas should be very competitive here. I'm open minded about the outcome but I will take my chances with van der Dussen to top score for the Proteas.
I hit the post with one of these multi price boosts in the Proteas v Sri Lanka game and for additional interest I will be tempted by one of the Playabets offers.
Bets: Top SA Run Scorer van der Dussen at 15/4 with BetXchange
T Bavuma to Hit Over 3.5 Fours, Q de Kock to Hit Over 0.5 Sixes & K Maharaj to Take 2 or More Wickets | boosted to 13.00 with Playabets
100% match on your first deposit up to R2000 for new customers
Note all prices are correct at the time of writing but are subject to change
Discussion Forum
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