The first of three T20 Internationals between England and South Africa takes place in Cardiff on Wednesday and we take a look at the squads, recent form and the all important betting
South Africa won last week's ODI series at the start of this short white ball tour. They thumped England by 7 wickets at Leeds and then edged a thriller by 5 runs at Lords. On Sunday the third and final ODI painted a totally different picture as England rocked up 414/5 and South Africa (72 all out) crashed to a record defeat.
We now move on to the T20's and this is a 3 match series with the second contest taking place at Manchester on Friday and the third at Nottingham on Sunday. There is some synergy among the ODI and T20 squads and that seems a logical place to start.
England: Harry Brook (c), Rehan Ahmed, Jofra Archer, Tom Banton, Jacob Bethell, Jos Buttler, Brydon Carse, Sam Curran, Liam Dawson, Will Jacks, Saqib Mahmood, Jamie Overton, Adil Rashid, Phil Salt, Jamie Smith, Luke Wood
South Africa: Aiden Markram (c), Corbin Bosch, Dewald Brevis, Donovan Ferreira, Marco Jansen, Keshav Maharaj, Kwena Maphaka, David Miller, Senuran Muthusamy, Lungi Ngidi, Lhuan-dre Pretorius, Kagiso Rabada, Ryan Rickelton, Tristan Stubbs, Lizaad Williams
England Recent Form
England completed a 3-0 clean sweep of a home series against West Indies in June with winning margins of 21 runs, 4 wickets and 37 runs.
Their only other T20 action in 2025 saw them thrashed 4-1 in India in January
South Africa Recent Form
The Proteas lost a 3 match series in Australia 2-1 in August. They lost the first game by 17 runs before squaring things up with a 58 run victory in the second game. Australia won the decider by 2 wickets.
An understrength Proteas side won 2 and lost 3 of their matches in a tri series with New Zealand and hosts Zimbabwe in July. Prior to that they won a 3 match home series against Pakistan 2-0 (third contest abandoned) with winning margins of 11 runs and 7 wickets,
Head to Head
Overall the teams have met 26 times in this format with South Africa winning 13 to England's 12 with 1 no result.
The most recent meeting came in June 2024 in the Super 8's of the World T20 in the West Indies and South Africa (163/6) beat England (156/6) by 7 runs.
The Venue, Sophia Gardens, Cardiff
Over the course of the last decade 8 scheduled T20's involving England at this venue have delivered 6 wins for the hosts, 1 defeat and 1 match was abandoned.
The most recent T20 came in September 2024 and England (194/7) beat Australia (193/6) by 3 wickets with 6 balls remaining.
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The Betting
At the time of writing Betway have England at 7/10 and South Africa can be backed at 23/20
Prices subject to change
The Verdict
How much impact Sunday's hiding in the last ODI has on the Proteas is open to debate, Archer bowled for superbly for England is is in the squad for the hosts for this series too.
Another player to impress on Sunday was Jacob Bethell and with his confidence up I'm going to nibble at his price to be the top run scorer from either side.
Bet: Top Batsman in the match, Jacob Bethell at 16/1 with Betway