Old Trafford is the venue for the second test match between England and South Africa, the game gets under way on Thursday and after a dominant display in the series opener the Proteas are 1-0 up with two to play.
This a 3 match series and despite starting the first test at Lords as underdogs in the region of 33/10, South Africa wrapped up victory inside 3 days by a margin of an innings and 12 runs.
South Africa won the toss and opted to field first and their bowlers didn't disappoint as England were bowled out for just 165. Ollie Pope made 73 and 7 England batsmen never made it into double figures as Rabada (5), Nortje (3) and Jansen (2) needed just 45 overs to put the Proteas in control.
In their reply Elgar (47) and Erwee (73) made a solid start, Jansen made 48 and Maharaj 41 as South Africa posted 326. Broad and Stokes took 3 wickets a piece.
England had been in terrific test match form prior to this game, winning 4 on the bounce largely thanks to some excellent work in their second innings but there was little resistance this time and they were bowled out for 149 (Lees and Broad both 35). Nortje claimed 3 wickets and Rabada 2 more for 7 in total which earned him the Man of the Match award.
This was how the teams lined up at Lords in the first test
England: Alex Lees, Zak Crawley, Ollie Pope, Joe Root, Jonny Bairstow, Ben Stokes (c), Ben Foakes (wk), Stuart Broad, Jack Leach, Matty Potts, James Anderson
South Africa: Dean Elgar (c), Sarel Erwee, Keegan Petersen, Aiden Markram, Rassie van der Dussen, Kyle Verreynne (wk), Marco Jansen, Keshav Maharaj, Kagiso Rabada, Anrich Nortje, Lungi Ngidi
Old Trafford, Manchester
Over the course of the last decade England have played 8 test matches at Manchester, winning 6, drawing 1 and losing 1 (to Australia in 2019).
The most recent test at this ground came against Pakistan in August 202 and England won a thriller by 3 wickets with a final innings run chase of 277.
In July 2017 England (362 and 243) beat the Proteas (226 and 202) by 177 runs at the venue
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The Betting - 2nd Test Match
At the time of writing England are 21/20 to win the match with the draw at 7/2 and South Africa are 27/20
Joe Root is 2/1 to top score for England in the first innings and Elgar is 11/4 to do likewise for South Africa
Note all prices are correct at the time of writing but are subject to change
The Verdict
The Proteas bowlers were excellent at Lords and a similar display here would give them every chance of claiming the series but I imagine England will have heeded the warning to some degree and it promises to be a good test match.
I will stick with van der Dussen to score a 50 in SA's first innings and given Ollie Pope was the only England batsmen to score anything significant in the first knock at Lords he comes into the mix in the same market at the same price.
Bets: 1st Innings van der Dussen, to score a 50? yes at 21/10
1st Innings Ollie Pope, to score a 50? yes at 21/10
Note all prices are correct at the time of writing but are subject to change
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