After suffering a heavy defeat in their opening match of the ICC Cricket World Cup South Africa bid to kick start their campaign when they take on Bangladesh at Kennington Oval on Sunday.
Bangladesh:
You can get around 125/1 about the chances of Bangladesh winning this tournament and as their outright odds suggest it will be a major surprise if they go deep. However they could be upset material along the way and in the ICC Champions Trophy in England and Wales in 2017 they did exceed expectations in reaching the semi finals, thanks largely to an upset win over New Zealand in the pool stage.
In the 2015 CWC Bangladesh also made it out of the pool stage, pulling off a memorable victory over England along the way before bowing out to India in the quarter finals.
Bangladesh won a tri series with West Indies and Ireland in May. Their first scheduled warm up match against Pakistan was washed out and in the second warm up they lost to India by 95 runs in Cardiff, coming up well short when chasing India’s 359/7.
Squad: Mashrafe Mortaza(captain), Tamim Iqbal, Liton Das, Shakib Al Hasan, Soumya Sarkar, Mushfiqur Rahim, Mahmudullah, Sabbir Rahman, Mohammad Saifuddin, Mehidy Hasan, Rubel Hossain, Mustafizur Rahman, Mohammad Mithun, Abu Jayed, Mosaddek Hossain.
South Africa:
The Proteas came up against hosts and outright favourites England in the opening match of the tournament at this venue on Thursday and they were beaten by 104 runs. Both skippers were keen to win the toss and bowl first and that privilege went the way of Faf du Plessis. South Africa had started at around 17/10 underdogs in that game but after restricting to England to 311/8 their odds shorted in to around 12/10 “in play” at the innings break. Ngidi (3/66), Rabada (2/66) and Tahir (2/61) all bowled their full complement of 10 overs.
In the chase Quinton de Kock made 68 and van der Dussen (50) but the Proteas lost regular wickets. There was a degree of misfortune with Amla retiring hurt early on and by the time he returned the asking rate was well beyond the South Africans. The innings closed in 39.5 overs with South Africa all out for 207.
It’s a long tournament with each nation playing each other in the round robin stage and the Proteas have eased slightly in the outright betting to 11/1.
This is how the Proteas lined up against England on Thursday
Hashim Amla, Quinton de Kock, Aiden Markram, Faf du Plessis (captain), Rassie van der Dussen, JP Duminy, Dwaine Pretorius, Andile Phehlukwayo, Kagiso Rabada, Lungi Ngidi, Imran Tahir
Head to Head
The teams have met 20 times with South Africa winning 17 and Bangladesh winning 3.
The most recent series between the sides came in October 2017 in South Africa and the Proteas won all 3 matches by margins of 10 wickets, 104 runs and 200 runs.
The Betting, Click here for all markets
Bangladesh 28/10
South Africa 2/7
Note prices quoted are correct at the time of publication but are subject to change.
Verdict:
We look to the top South African bat and ball markets and after top scoring against England on Thursday Quinton de Kock gets the vote. With the ball, slight preference is for Ngidi. He was expensive in the early overs against England but finished well with a total of 3 wickets and he could go in again.
Suggested Bets:
Top South Africa Batsman, Quinton de Kock at 3/1
Top South African bowler Ngidi at 33/10
Note prices quoted are correct at the time of publication but are subject to change.
Click here for all CWC markets.
Claim your 1st deposit bonus of up to R10,000 here
Remember you can have your own say on all this week’s matches on our discussion forum
