The second One Day International between South Africa and Australia takes place in Bloemfonteinon on Wednesday and the Proteas are 1-0 up with two to play.
The opening match of this series was staged in Paarl on Saturday, the Proteas were underdogs at around 7/4 but they sprang a surprise with a 74 run victory.
South Africa won the toss and opted to bat first and they were in trouble at 48/3 at the start of the tenth over. Kyle Verreynne started the recovery with 48 but it was Heinrich Klaasen who did the bulk of the run scoring with an unbeaten 123 including 3 of South Africa's 4 maximums. David Miller weighed in with 64 and the innings closed on 291/7. Pat Cummins with figures of 3/45 was the pick of the Australian bowlers.
Lungi Ngidi removed both Australian openers in the first 9 overs before Steve Smith put Australian back on course with the top score of 76. Marnus Labuschagne made 41 but Australian collapsed from 133/2 to 217 all out in 45.1 overs. There were no sixes in the Australian innings and Ngidi with 3/30 in his 8 overs was the top SA bowler on the day.
This was how the teams lined up in Paarl.
South Africa: Quinton de Kock (c & wk), Temba Bavuma, David Miller, Kagiso Rabada, Andile Phehlukwayo, Tabraiz Shamsi, Lungi Ngidi, Heinrich Klaasen, Janneman Malan,, Anrich Nortje, Keshav Maharaj, Kyle Verreynne
Jon-Jon Smuts, Beuran Hendricks and Lutho Sipamla were the players who missed out on Saturday.
Australia: Aaron Finch (c), Alex Carey (vc), Pat Cummins (vc), Josh Hazlewood, Marnus Labuschagne, Mitchell Marsh, Steven Smith, D'Arcy Short, Mitchell Starc, David Warner, Adam Zampa,
Jhye Richardson, Kane Richardson, Ashton Agar and Matthew Wade sat out the opening contest.
Mangaung Oval, Bloemfontein
Since 2010 Bloem has hosted just 5 ODI's involving the Proteas resulting in 4 homes wins (Zimbabwe twice, Sri Lanka and Pakistan) and 1 defeat (to England in 2016).
The most recent ODI saw the Proteas beat Zimbabwe by 120 runs in October 2018.
Weather Forecast – Bloemfontein
Head to Head
The teams have met 101 times with Australia winning 48, South Africa have now won 49 with 3 ties and 1 no result.
The Betting
At the time of writing South Africa can be backed at 18/10 to win the game with Australia a short price of 9/20. In the top bat markets Quinton de Kock is as short as 7/4 to top score for the Proteas and David Warner is 5/2 to do likewise for Australia.
It's 4/6 for any century to be scored in the match and 17/20 for the highest individual score to exceed 104.5 runs.
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The Verdict
That was a cracking result for the Proteas in Paarl but the betting has a similar look to it for this second contest with Australia firm favourites to level things up and take the series to a decider in Potch at the weekend.
I fancy a top individual score of 105 runs on more and for additional interest I will go with David Warner to beat his runs quote of 37.5.
Suggested Bets: Highest individual score, over 104.5 runs at 17/20.
Batsman Match Runs, Warner over 37.5 at 17/20
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