South Africa v England – First T20 Betting Preview & Tips

South Africa will take on a touring England side in the first T20I of a 3-match series at Newlands, Cape Town on Friday. Quinton De Kock will lead the Proteas in both formats, while Eoin Morgan will captain England in both formats.

South Africa has fielded a full-strength 24-man squad for the tour. Meanwhile, England has opted to rest Ben Stokes, Jofra Archer, and Chris Jordan for the ODI series.

South Africa last featured in a limited-overs series against Australia in February and March this year. England has had more cricketing action, and they were last seen in the limited-overs tour against Australia in September 2020.

Rating The South Africans at IPL 2020

The big talking point in South African cricket has the governance of the board of CSA, or the lack thereof. But now that England – the number-two ranked team in T20 cricket – have arrived on SA soil, the focus can be on enjoy their team square off against the world’s best.

After an impressive 10-2 W/L record during 2018/19, T20 cricket has been quite disappointing for South Africa as they have won just one of their last five contests, with two of those defeats being quite heavy losses (107 and 97 runs).

The recent IPL tournament, however, shone a bright light on some South African players with the likes of Quinton de Kock, Kagiso Rabada, Chris Morris, Anrich Nortje and Faf du Plessis all having fine tournaments.

England enter this series having registered a 13-5 W/L record over their past two years of T20 cricket, including wins in six of their past seven series. The only blemish was a 1-1 drawn series with Pakistan back in August.

When these two teams squared off earlier in the year for a T20 series, England prevailed 2-1, with all three matches played needing 40 overs to decide the result. In fact, that series was so close that two games went all the way to the last delivery.

Probable Playing XI

South Africa: Quinton De Kock (C/WK), Rassie van der Dussen, Faf Du Plessis, Heinrich Klaasen, David Miller, Andile Pheklukawayo/Reeza Hendricks, Kagiso Rabada, Lungi Ngidi, Tabraiz Shamsi, and Anrich Nortje.

England: Jos Buttler (WK), Jason Roy, Dawid Malan, Jonny Bairstow/ Moeen Ali, Eoin Morgan (C), Ben Stokes, Sam Curran, Jofra Archer, Chris Jordan, Adil Rashid, and Reece Topley/ Mark Wood.

Key Players & Stats

Quinton de Kock (SA) has a strike rate of 179.66 against England (five innings for 212 runs). This strike rate is more than 30 points better than his next best opponent.

Kagiso Rabada won the Purple Cap in the 20202 IPL with a incredible 30 wicket haul at strike rate of 13.13

Jason Roy (ENG) has had scores of 21, 44, 30, 15, 67, 69, 70, 40 and 7 from his last nine T20I at bats. That has seen his career average go from 19.12 to 24.57.

The Proteas have a 2-4 W/L record across their last six matches played at Newlands.

The team batting first has won five of the seven T20I H2Hs.

Heinrich Klaasen has scored just 34 runs from three T20Is innings at Newlands.

Only two bowlers have taken 4+ wickets in an innings in T20I between South Africa and England – Dane Paterson and Imran Tahir.

The lowest winning first innings score at Newlands is 154.

The average first innings score at Newlands is 155 (179 for teams who win batting first).

The chasing team has won 12 of 18 T20Is at Newlands (excluding Super Over ties).

Prediction and Betting Tips

South Africa

Quinton de Kock to be South Africa’s top batsman at 3.00

Anrich Nortje to be South Africa’s top bowler at 4.00

England

Jos Buttler to be England’s top batsman at 3.75

Adil Rashid to be England’s top bowler at 3.75

Prediction: England to win at 1.62.