Australia vs South Africa Betting Tips & Predictions | T20 World Cup

Australia Team News

Good news: a trio of fast bowlers in Mitchell Starc, Pat Cummins and Josh Hazlewood is world- class. Maybe Adam Zampa and Ashton Agar aren’t quite at the same level as some of the other spinners at the tournament but they’re decent enough.

Bad news: Australia keep on picking the wrong players. David Warner, whose poor form is discussed here seems to be immune to being dropped.

Steve Smith is at least getting some runs but his strike rate is poor. He shouldn’t be playing either. But skipper Aaron Finch and coach Justin Langer are being extremely stubborn and both will play.

Thankfully, they have Mitch Marsh and Glenn Maxwell in superb form who can do their best to clean up a mess left by the top order.

South Africa Team News

South Africa often come into tournaments as one of the fancied sides. Not this time. With no Faf du Plessis or AB de Villiers, who have both been out of the side to focus on franchise cricket over the past few years, they’re without their two best batsmen.

Quinton de Kock is excellent,  Tenda Bavuma very solid and Heinrich Klassen is  a good finisher.

But there are question marks over the likes of David Miller and Pretorius. And sooner or later they’ll need some lower middle-order hitting. They may not have it.

Still, rather like Australia, there’s very little wrong with their bowling.

Anrich Nortje and Kagiso Rabada were excellent for Delhi in the IPL, while Lungi Ngidi completes the trio and he’s a fine wicket-taker, too.

In the spin department, Tabraiz Shamsi is after all the top-ranked bowler in T20Is, so they’re in good hands with him. There’s not much wrong with their bowling, that’s for sure.

Venue & conditions

We’re in the Sheikh Zayed Stadium for this game. Both in the IPL and in the recent game between Sri Lanka and Ireland, the wicket looked pretty good. So it would be no surprise if 170 is seen as a target for the side batting first. Dew may play a part, that could tempt the captain winning the toss to want to chase.

Then again, both teams may decide runs on the board and then unleashing their quality fast bowlers in defending is the way to go.

It’s very hard to tell what they may be thinking. Check out our Zayed Stadium betting guide for more on this venue.

Australia vs South Africa Winner Prediction

Recommended Bet: South Africa to win @ 2.08 with Pure Win

Australia are slight favourites here and that’s for two reasons. The first is that head-to-head record, that’s quite one-sided. The second is a belief that they have better players.

I’m not sure the second part is right. I make their bowling attacks equally good. Both have three top drawer fast bowlers in them. But as far as spinners go, I’d take Shamsi over Zampa/Agar and the ICC rankings suggest I’d be right to do so.

As for the batting, they’re probably as bad as each other. In Australia’s case they’re picking the wrong players, in SA’s case they don’t have much choice given du Plessis and de Villiers are unavailable.

SA by the way are ranked fifth in the T20I rankings, Australia are seventh. With not much to choose between them at all, I’d much rather go with the bigger odds on the outsider.

Go with the Proteas on the match-winner market with Pure Win. Oh, and here’s our Pure Win review, by the way.

Today’s Australia vs South Africa Hot Bet

Recommended Bet: Mitch Marsh to be Australia’s Top batsman @ 5.1 with 10CRIC

Mitch Marsh was one of the players we mentioned as being one of the two saviours who could make up for Australia’s poor selection of players.

There are good reasons to say that. He plays with far more freedom than the likes of Steve Smith or the struggling David Warner and is prepared to take more risks. He’ll look for boundaries earlier in his innings and more often.

He was their best batsman by a country mile in the Windies, getting to 50 on numerous occasions and by all accounts, has been batting beautifully in the nets over the past week or so.

The big threat for him is Glenn Maxwell, who had an excellent IPL and is an equally aggressive batsman.

But Marsh will bat at three and Maxwell most likely, only at five.

Those extra few deliveries could make a huge difference.

10 CRIC have the best odds on Marsh; check out our 10CRIC review and what we think of it as a betting site.

Australia vs South Africa fun statistics

Let’s round things off with some quick stats ahead of the game.

• Aaron Finch has been in poor form with the bat but is still the Number 3 ranked player in the ICC rankings.
• SA’s two best-ranked batsmen are Quinton de Kock and Rassie van der Dussen (14th).
• Australia’s Glenn Maxwell and Mitch Marsh are ranked 7th and 8th in the all-rounder rankings.
• Despite his poor form at the moment, David Warner has scored more runs in games between these two than anyone else. He’s scored 457.
• There has never been a century scored by anyone in games between these two.