South Africa v England – Third ODI
November 26th, 2009 / Lee A JacksonNewlands, Cape Town
12.30pm GMT
Friday sees the third in the series of five One Day Internationals in the South Africa vs. England series. Surprisingly England have the upper hand at the moment, as they won the second game after a seven wicket win over the hosts. Paul Collingwood stepped up to the plate and knocked off a fine century, as well as getting in amongst the wickets which his medium pacers seeing him take 2-24 from six overs. The recovery from injury of James Anderson proved to be a big bonus for England, as he took 3 wickets, and Tim Bresnan helped his selection odds for the tour by taking Graham Smith as one of his two wickets.
There had been some concern over how the England bowling attack would possibly cope against the strength of the South African batting line-up. The game wasn’t a free flowing classic, more of two boxers feeling each other out in the first round of a bout, and the South African batsmen had that feel about them. Captain Andrew Strauss won the toss and set his side in the field, and the England bowlers started to make progress, limiting the Proteas to a mediocre score of just 250. More often than not though, England have failed to take advantage over any progress made in the first innings of One Day games, this time however it was a different story. The one area in which England knew they could attack, was by getting into their not-so-penetrative bowlers.
Paul Collingwood‘s century, backed up by opener Jonathan Trott’s 87 took the attack to the South African bowlers, an area of their game which was also causing concern for England supporters ahead of the series. England have not exactly embellished themselves with glory in the shorter formats of the game, and that is why this victory came as a little bit of a surprise, even though England had beaten South Africa in their previous encounter in the Champions Trophy. Now the challenge facing England is to build some momentum for the rest of the tour, and if they play competently, avoid any collapses and major rushes of blood to the head, taking a 2-0 lead in a five game series would be a huge confidence booster.
On the injury front, Stuart Broad has recovered from the injury which he picked up in England’s first warm up match, and he will return to the line-up. Spinner Graeme Swann is also on the brink of returning from injury, which will fortify the England attack over second spinner Adil Rashid who has yet to hit any kind of form in his young international career. South Africa will now come back with much gusto and have called up the experience of Herschelle Gibbs to try and inject some fire into the belly, after their re-worked batting order didn’t hit the ground running in the second One Day International.
Third One Day International (3/5)
South Africa to win: 4/7 at Totesport
England to win: 6/4 at Boylesports
Betting Advice: Believe it or not, England have won the last six ODI encounters between the two nations, and England showed something akin to controlled composure for the most part, in chasing down an average total set for them. There is still room for improvement, especially in the field, with several catching chances being dropped. Batting first in the day-nighter, should give some kind of advantage, and while the bookies still don’t have a lot of faith in England, it means there is a good chance to pick up some nice odds.
Top England Batsman: South African born Kevin Pietersen may just be coming back from injury, and he will be targeted, but he will hit out at some point and post a big score. After failing in the previous ODI, he will be fired up. Kevin Petersen – 11/2 at Totesport
Series Outright:
England – 7/4 at Bet365
Draw: 7/4 at Coral
South Africa – 5/2 at Totesport
Series Score:
Draw 2-2 – 13/8 at Blue Square
England 3-1 – 5/2 at Ladbrokes
South Africa 3-1 – 5/2 at BetFred
England 4-0 – 14/1 at Bet365
