The first of three T20 Internationals between Australia and South Africa takes place in Darwin on Sunday and we take a look at the squads, recent form and the all important betting
This is a 3 match series with the second contest also taking place at Darwin on Tuesday and third match will be staged in Cairns on Saturday 16th August. After that we have three ODI's to complete the tour.
Let's start with the squads.
Australia: Mitchell Marsh (c), Sean Abbott, Tim David, Ben Dwarshuis, Nathan Ellis, Cameron Green, Josh Hazlewood, Travis Head, Josh Inglis, Matt Kuhnemann, Glenn Maxwell, Mitchell Owen, Matthew Short, Adam Zampa
South Africa: Aiden Markram (captain), Corbin Bosch, Dewald Brevis, Nandre Burger, George Linde, Kwena Maphaka, Senuran Muthusamy, Lungi Ngidi, Nqaba Peter, Lhuan-dre Pretorius, Kagiso Rabada, Ryan Rickelton, Tristan Stubbs, Prenelan Subrayen, Rassie van der Dussen
Australia Recent Form
Australia reeled off a 5-0 series clean sweep of the West Indies last month, winning 3 of the matches by a 3 wicket margin, another by 6 wickets and one by 8 wickets.
In their most recent home series they beat Pakistan 3-0 by margins of 29 runs, 13 runs and 7 wickets.
The Aussies have won 12 of their last 14 T20''s with one defeat and one match abandoned.
South Africa Recent Form
An understrength Proteas side won 2 and lost 3 of their matches in a tri series with New Zealand and hosts Zimbabwe last month.
Prior to that they won a 3 match haome 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 25 times in this format with Australia winning 17 to South Africa's 8
Australia have won each of the last 5 head to heads including a 3-0 clean sweep in Durban in August / September 2023
The Betting
At the time of writing (plenty early enough) BetXchange have Australia to win 0.42/1 and South Africa can be backed at 19/10
Prices subject to change
The Verdict
The first match will provide pointers for the rest of the series but my gut feel is although Australia are in great form in T20's the Proteas have a strong enough squad to lead me to believe they are the value at 19/10 on the board.
Any further bets will be added in our discussion forum
Bet: South Africa to win at 19/10 with BetXchange
Prices subject to change
