West Indies v South Africa ODI Series

By Bigjoe

Commences Saturday 22nd May, 13.30 GMT

Both sides will be looking to recover from disappointing efforts in the World Twenty20 World Cup. South Africa drew first blood in the two T20 games that kicked off this tour, narrowly winning both times. Now we move onto the 50 over format and South Africa are installed as short priced favourites to prevail.

The ODI rankings indicate a wide gap in class between these two sides and on the face of it, the short odds on a South African series win look justified. However, I believe the pitches in the West Indies will prove to be a big leveller and feel that the Windies could make a mockery of those ODI rankings and spring a surprise.

In the past couple of years the pitches here have become very unpredictable and the Windies experience of playing on these pitches more then anyone else gives them a distinct advantage in this longer format of the one day game. The South African batsmen and bowlers have been brought up on lively, pace orientated surfaces and they will not enjoy the turgid, slow low nature of the pitches on offer in this series.

South Africa will be encouraged by the good form that Kallis has been in recently, however, they will also be concerned about the dip in form of the likes of Smith, De Villiers and Duminy. On the bowling front, they will rely mainly on the pace of Steyn and Morne Morkel with the spinning options of Botha and Van de Merve. On these pitches, the spin bowlers should hold sway and the ability of batsmen to handle that spin in the crucial middle overs will be key in this series.

The West Indies batting array of Gayle, Sarwan, Chanderpaul, Bravo and Pollard can be a match for anyone on their day, but the trouble has been that those days have been far and few between in recent years. However, on their home patch they do tend to do better and I am confident that there is enough talent and depth in the side to post or chase up decent scores. On the bowling front Windies will be pleased to see the return of Jerome Taylor to partner Kemar Roach in the pace department. They also have decent spin options in Sulimen Benn and Gayle.

Overall, I believe the value in this series lies in laying South Africa. They have become very inconsistent recently and too many of their big players are out of form. On these home pitches I fully expect the Windies to excel and therefore my suggested bet for this series is:

In the Series Outright Market:

LAY South Africa for 5 points liability @ 1.48 on Betfair

Bigjoe