The Wanderers, Johannesburg is the venue for the third and final test match between South Africa and Pakistan. The game gets underway on Friday and the Proteas already have a series win in the bag.
After winning the first test at Centurion by 6 wickets the Proteas clinched the series with a 9 wicket victory at Newlands last week. The game was over early on the fourth day and the bowling attack of the home side once again had Pakistan battling to form significant partnerships.
Pakistan were bowled out for 177 batting first with Sarfraz (56) the top scorer of the 4 batsmen to reach double figures. Olivier, who took a total of 11 wickets in the first test, added another 4 to his series tally.
In reply the Proteas posted 431 with Faf du Plessis (103) top scoring whilst Markram (78) and Bavuma (75) were other notable contributors. Amir and Afridi took 4 wickets a piece for Pakistan.
In their second innings Pakistan scored the highest innings total of the series so far. However 294 all out with Shafiq’s 88 the top score was only just enough to take the game into the fourth day as Steyn and Rabada took 4 wickets each. The Proteas needed just over 40 runs for victory, a target they reached with the loss of just 1 wicket.
This was how the teams lined up at Newlands.
South Africa: Faf du Plessis (capt), Hashim Amla, Temba Bavuma, Theunis de Bruyn, Quinton de Kock, Dean Elgar, Vernon Philander, Aiden Markram, Duanne Olivier, Kagiso Rabada, Dale Steyn
Pakistan: Imam-ul-Haq, Fakhar Zaman, Shan Masood, Azhar Ali, Asad Shafiq, Babar Azam, Sarfaraz Ahmed (C, Wk), Yasir Shah, Md Abbas, Md Amir, Shaheen Afridi
Faf du Plessis is suspended for this final test after picking up a ban for a slow over rate at Newlands.
The Venue, The Wanderers
Over the last decade the Proteas have won 4, drawn 1 and lost 4 of 9 tests at this venue.
The most recent test match at this ground came in March 2018 and South Africa beat Australia by 492 runs with scores of 488 and then 344/6 declared to Australia’s 221 and 119.
In January 2018 South Africa lost to India by 63 runs with the home side posting totals of 194 and then 177 whilst India, who batted first, made 187 and 247 on a horrible deck.
Betting - Match Result
South Africa 1 / 3
Draw 9/1
Pakistan 4/1
Note: Prices are an average of what was available at the time of writing but are subject to change
The Verdict:
Perhaps dangerously, I’ll work on the assumption that the Wanderers, which came under heavy fire for its poor batting decks last year, will turn out a better batting deck for this test.
With the above in mind I’ll speculate that we will see a Pakistan century from any of their batsmen in the first innings. They did make a decent fist of their final innings at Newlands in difficult circumstances and with little else really standing out to my eye, I’ll leave it there.
Bets: Team Batsman to score a Hundred in 1st Innings, Pakistan? (yes) at 15/10
Remember you can have your own say on all this week’s matches on our discussion forum
