Paarl is the venue for the first of three One Day Internationals between South Africa and Pakistan and we take a look at the squads, recent form and the all important betting
The Proteas won last week's T20 series 2-0, beating Pakistan by 11 runs in the first match and 7 wickets in the second before Sunday's match at The Wanderers was washed out.
Onto the ODI's and this is also a 3 match series with Newlands hosting the second contest on Thursday and we conclude at The Wanderers on Sunday. After that the first of 2 test matches starts at Centurion on Boxing Day.
Let's start with the ODI squads.
South Africa: Temba Bavuma (c), Ottneil Baartman, Tony de Zorzi, Marco Jansen, Heinrich Klaasen (wk), Keshav Maharaj, Kwena Maphaka, Aiden Markram, David Miller, Andile Phehlukwayo, Kagiso Rabada, Tristan Stubbs, Ryan Rickelton, Tabraiz Shamsi, Rassie van der Dussen
Pakistan: Mohammad Rizwan (captain & wk), Abdullah Shafique, Abrar Ahmed, Babar Azam, Haris Rauf, Kamran Ghulam, Mohammad Hasnain, Muhammad Irfan Khan, Naseem Shah, Saim Ayub, Salman Ali Agha, Shaheen Shah Afridi, Sufyan Moqim, Tayyab Tahir and Usman Khan
South Africa Recent Form
In October the Proteas beat Ireland 2-1 in a series staged in the UAE. That came on a the back of a 2-1 defeat to Afghanistan in Sharjah a month earlier. Last December India came to SA and beat the Proteas 2-1.
Pakistan Recent Form
Pakistan's only ODI action in 2024 came last month. They recovered from losing the opening match of a 3 game series in Zimbabwe to win 2-1. It was the same story in Australia when they lost the first match by 2 wickets but bounced back with wide margin wins (9 wickets and 8 wickets) to claim the series 2-1.
Head to Head
Overall the teams have met 83 times in this format with South Africa winning 52 to Pakistan's 30 and there has been 1 no result
The teams haven't met since October 2023 in the World Cup in India and the Proteas won a thriller by 1 wicket.
Pakistan's last ODI tour of SA came in April 2021 and they beat the Proteas 2-1.
The Venue, Boland Park, Paarl
The Proteas have played 6 ODI's at this venue over the course of the last decade, winning 5 and losing 1
The most recent ODI here came in December 2023 and India (296/8) beat South Africa (218) by 78 runs.
For the weather forecast click here
The Betting
At the time of writing South Africa are 6/10 to win with BetXchange and Pakistan can be backed at 27/20
South Africa are 0.57/1 to hit the most sixes, Pakistan are 39/20 and a tie is 5/1
Prices subject to change
The Verdict
That's a strong looking Proteas squad and Pakistan are fresh from a win in Australia so I would think it will be a very competitive week ahead.
Saim Ayub had a really good series in Australia and he also scored 129 runs in 2 knocks in the T20's last week so his form is solid and he gets the vote to top score for Pakistan.
For addition interest I'm with 12 or more sixes throughout the match.
Bet: Top Away Team Run Scorer, Saim Ayub at 41/10 with BetXchange
Total match sixes, over 11.5 at 19/20 with BetXchange
