The Rose Bowl, Southampton is the venue for the third and final match of the One Day International series between England and South Africa, the game takes place on Sunday and the Proteas are 2-0 up looking to make it a series clean sweep
The Proteas won the series opener by 7 wickets in Leeds on Tuesday of this week, bowling England out for just 131 (Maharaj took 4 wickets and Mulder 3, Jamie Smith made 53). Openers Markram with 86 and Rickleton (31) put the issue beyond doubt and although England took 3 late wickets the chase was completed in just 20.5 overs.
2nd ODI Wrap
The second contest took place at Lords on Thursday and South Africa came out on top by 5 runs.
After morning rain the toss was seen as significant, England won it and invited the Proteas to bat first and the visitors posted a healthy 330/8. Breetzke top scored with 85 and notable contributions also came from Stuubs (58), Markram (49) and Brevis (42). Archer took 4 wickets for England and Rashid with 2/33 also bowled well.
Jamie Smith went first ball in England's reply and Duckett struggled, Root (61) and Bethell (58) put England back in the game but fell in quick succession. Buttler made 61 to keep England in it but when he went the writing was on the wall despite a late flurry from Archer. Nandre Burger claimed 3 wickets and Maharaj added 2 more to his tally as England's run chase finished on 325/9 and the Proteas claimed the series win.
This was how the teams lined up at Lords on Thursday
England: Jamie Smith, Ben Duckett, Joe Root, Harry Brook (c), Jos Buttler (wk), Jacob Bethell, Will Jacks, Brydon Carse, Jofra Archer, Adil Rashid, Saqib Mahmood
South Africa: Aiden Markram, Ryan Rickelton (wk), Temba Bavuma (c), Matthew Breetzke, Tristan Stubbs, Dewald Brevis, Corbin Bosch, Senuran Muthusamy, Keshav Maharaj, Nandre Burger, Lungi Ngidi
After this we have 3 T20's to look forward to next week.
Head to Head
Overall the teams have met 73 times in this format with South Africa winning 37 to England's 30 with 1 tie and 5 no results.
The Venue, Rose bowl, Southampton
Over the course of the last decade 10 ODI's involving England at Southampton have delivered 8 wins for the hosts and 2 defeats
The most recent ODI came in September 2023 when England (226/7) beat New Zealand (147) by 79 runs
In May 2017 at this venue England beat South Africa by 2 runs.
Click here for the Southampton weather forecast
The Betting
At the time of writing Betway have England at 7/10 and South Africa are 23/20 in the match result market.
Prices subject to change
The Verdict
Matthew Breetzke missed the first ODI with a niggle but was a key man in sealing a series win at Lords. He was also in the runs against Australia and is not in the Proteas T20 squad for next week so one would assume he plays and he gets the vote to top score for the Proteas.
I'm also with 12 or more sixes in total across the duration of the match.
Bet: Top SA Bat Matthew Breetzke at 9/2 with Sportingbet
Total Match Sixes, over 11.5 at 9/10 with Betway