Supersport Park, Centurion is the venue for the second T20 International between South Africa and Pakistan, the game takes place on Friday and the Proteas are 1-0 up in the series with two to play
This is a 3 match series with The Wanderers hosting the final contest on Saturday. Next week there will be 3 ODI's and the first of 2 test matches starts at Centurion on Boxing Day.
The opening match took place in Durban on Tuesday and the Proteas came out on top by 11 runs.
South Africa won the toss and opted to bat first and they were quickly in trouble at 28/3 in 3.4 overs but David Miller came in and cracked 82 off 40 balls and George Linde hit 48 off 24 as the innings closed on 183/9. Miller hit 8 maximums and Linde 4 and the Proteas cleared the ropes 14 times in total. Shaheen Afridi (3/22) was the pick of the Pakistan bowlers and Abrar Ahmed also had success with 3/37.
Babar Azam lasted just 4 balls without scoring but Rizwan made 74 to keep Pakistan in the hunt. The only notable support came from Saim Ayib (31 off 15) and Pakistan's reply finished on 172/8 and they managed just 4 sixes. Linde took 4/21 and claimed the Man of the Match award.
This was how the teams lined up in the series opener at Kingsmead, note that Anrich Nortje, who didn't play on Tuesday has now been ruled out of this series and the ODI's.
South Africa: Rassie van der Dussen, Reeza Hendricks, Matthew Breetzke, David Miller, Heinrich Klaasen (c & wk), Donovan Ferreira, George Linde, Andile Simelane, Nqabayomzi Peter, Kwena Maphaka, Ottneil Baartman
Pakistan: Mohammad Rizwan (c & wk), Babar Azam, Saim Ayub, Usman Khan, Tayyab Tahir, Irfan Khan, Abbas Afridi, Shaheen Afridi, Haris Rauf, Sufiyan Muqeem, Abrar Ahmed
South Africa Recent Form
The Proteas lost 3-1 at home to India in November. They lost the opener by 61 runs at this venue and then squared things up with a 3 wicket win at St. Georges. India went back in front with an 11 run victory at Centurion and then sealed the series with a 135 run victory at The Wanderers,
Prior to that they shared a 2 match series with Ireland 1-1, winning the first match by 8 wickets but losing the second by 10 runs and those games were played in UAE. In August the Proteas were comfortably beaten by West Indies in all 3 matches in the Caribbean.
Pakistan Recent Form
Pakistan were in Zimbabwe on route to SA and they won a 3 match series 2-1. They won the first 2 matches by margins of 57 runs and then 10 wickets before Zim edged the final contest by 2 wickets.
Earlier in November Pakistan lost 3-0 in Australia, going down by 29 runs, 13 runs and finally 7 wickets
Head to Head
Overall the teams have met 23 times in this format with South Africa winning 11 to Pakistan's 12
The Venue, Supersport Park, Centurion
The Proteas have played 15 T20's at Centurion, winning 6 and losing 9.
The most recent T20 at this venue came as recently as the 13th November and South Africa lost to India by 11 runs. India lost the toss and were invited to bat first and they posted 219/6. The Proteas top 4 in the batting order all got starts but failed to kick on and the hosts fell behind the asking rate. Heinrich Klaasen then hit 41 off 22 and Jansen smashed 54 off 17 but the innings closed on 208/7.
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The Betting
At the time of writing South Africa are 0.57/1 to win with BetXchange and Pakistan can be backed at 14/10.
Prices subject to change
The Verdict
My Player Performance picks on Tuesday proved to be pretty hopeless but I like Klaasen to beat his quote here. On what is usually a high scoring ground I'm also with 18 or more sixes in total.
Bet: Total match sixes, over 17.5 at 9/10 with BetXchange
Player Performance Heinrich Klaasen, over 31.5 points at 17/20 with BetXchange
