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England v South Africa ODI preview: England hoping to end poor ODI form

1 year ago
| BY News Team

After a disappointing 2-1 loss in their ODI series against India last week, England will be looking to bounce back with some better performances against South Africa.

While England’s batting slumped against India, there were still some positives to be taken with the ball in hand.

We preview the first match and the series below.

The squads

Tuesday’s match will be notable as Ben Stokes’ final ODI game for England, with the recently appointed Test captain announcing his retirement from the short form of the game having scored nearly 2900 runs and taken 74 wickets with the white ball. Can the Durham county cricketer add to those totals at his home ground on Tuesday and possibly exceed 3000 ODI runs? The 31-year-old is 5/1 to be England’s top run scorer, and 6/1 to take most wickets.

In other news, England have made two changes to the squad that faced India with Adil Rashid returning from his Hajj pilgrimage and coming straight back into the squad and most likely the starting XI.

After being one of the more notable players in the India series seam bowler Reece Topley is rested and replaced by Durham’s Matthew Potts who impressed on his test debut against Zealand this summer.

With a star-studded line-up England are not expected to change too much with their batting order and will hope that the talent and experience their players possess will see them through this rough patch.

Among these is Jonny Bairstow who was having his best summer to date with multiple centuries in the Test series against New Zealand but he failed to continue this form against India last week. However, he is still favourite to be England’s top run scorer in the first match at 11/4.

Captain Jos Buttler has shown some promising signs recently, and with 94 runs across three innings last week he was one of England’s highest scorers. At 7/2 he is expected to live up to his formidable batting reputation and top score for England.

Adil Rashid joins up with the squad and as one of the most skilled spinners in the world he will be hoping to help his batters by taking some key wickets. Rashid is 3/1 to be England’s top bowler and his unpredictability and control of the ball makes him a real danger for the South African batters.

Despite the recent loss to India, the reputation of England’s players sees the current ODI world champions head into the first match as 8/15 favourites to take a 1-0 lead.

South Africa come into the series off the back of a 2-2 T20 series draw against India. Up against one of the most formidable ODI sides in recent years South Africa are 6/4 underdogs to win the first match of the series at the Riverside Ground on Tuesday.

Rassie van der Dussen starred with the bat in their T20 series with India scoring an unbeaten 75 from just 46 balls in the first match. The Highveld Lions batsman is likely to come in at Number four and at 9/2 to be his side’s top run scorer in the first match he will hope to continue his form.

South Africa are missing star bowler Kagiso Rabada, but with four wickets in the T20 series against India Anrich Nortje is fancied at 11/4 to be South Africa’s top wicket taker in the first match.

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The Series

England are certainly the stronger side on paper and this is reflected with odds of 2/5 making them favourites to win the series.

Poor form gives some reason to doubt England, which sees a 2-1 series victory at 11/8 more likely than a 3-0 whitewash victory at 9/4.

South Africa are the underdogs for the series at 19/10 but with talent in the squad and England low on confidence a 2-1 series win is certainly on the cards at 3/1, while a 3-0 win would be a brilliant achievement but seems unlikely at 9/1.

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