South Africa v Bangladesh – Sunday, June 2nd at 10:30 am
After their struggle with England in the opening fixture of the World Cup, South Africa will be stepping into what appears to be a bit of an easier challenge for them. They will be taking on a Bangladesh side who are not carrying much form with them into the tournament. The Proteas will be starting as the red-hot favourites to pick up the match win. They need one to recover from their opening defeat.
South Africa v Bangladesh
South Africa 2/7
Bangladesh 11/4
* (Betting Odds were taken from bet365 on May 30th, 2019 at 4:07 p.m.)
South Africa show a steady hand
South Africa’s approach to their opening match at the Oval against England in the tournament was steady and measured. The pitch helped them keep the England batsman reeled in and that was without the injured Dale Steyn. But their run chase fell a long way short of their target.
So South Africa will be looking to push on for a comfortable victory to really get that momentum going in the tournament and it is their batting power which is likely to ensure that they collected maximum points.
After a strong inning against England in their run chase, South Africa’s Quinton de Kock is the 5/2 favourite to be their Top Batsman in the fixture* (Betting Odds were taken from bet365 on May 30th, 2019 at 4:07 p.m.). He did get himself out a little bit unnecessarily against England, trying to push the Proteas on. South Africa last met up with Bangladesh back in October 2017. That was a three-match series in which they made a clean sweep of their opponents.
In the last six ODI meetings with South Africa, Bangladesh have taken just the two wins. Those were on home soil a long time ago in 2015. Bangladesh came into the tournament with some recent struggles behind them in the last twelve months against the higher class opposition. They did, however, make a clean sweep of the West Indies in Dublin in May. That should have given them a bit of a lift. Prior to that, they had taken a pounding by New Zealand.
In the last twelve months, they have won three different series against West Indies, so that’s worth noting for when they meet the Windies at the World Cup. But they lost games against India and New Zealand, regarded as much strong opposition. They don’t look a tremendous threat with the bat really and they don’t look too capable of putting totals up on the board. That is likely where they are going to fall short.
Predictions
This is a winnable match for South Africa and they are the ones with the superior batting quality without question. There was some questionable decisions made by some of their key batsman against England, but they were under more pressure in that game than they will likely be in this one. South Africa to win.
