South Africa v India ODI Series

By Bigjoe

Commences Wednesday 12th January 12.30 GMT

An exciting Test series between these two top sides ended in a 1-1 stalemate. India prevailed in the T20 and now the action switches to the 50 over format for a five game series. Both sides will be looking for a confidence boosting series win ahead of the World Cup next month and the physiological advantage as they are drawn in the same World Cup fist phase group.

Both sides would have preferred to play their full strength sides, however big names are missing due injury niggles. For India, the master blaster Virender Sehwag has been rested to ensure his fitness for the World Cup and the ever reliable Jacques Kallis misses out with a side strain.

An interesting inclusion in the South African squad is Imran Tahir, a Pakistan born wrist spinner who has made his mark in English domestic cricket and is newly qualified to play for South Africa. A leg spinner is something that South Africa have been crying out for and it will be interesting to see how Tahir performs. Another newcomer into the squad is big hitting all rounder Faf du Plessis.

India come into this series on the back of a convincing 5-0 whitewash of New Zealand. Even without Sehwag, India possess a formidable batting lineup. Sachin Tendulkar,  Gautam Gambhir , Virat Kohli, Yuvraj Singh, Suresh Raina and MS Dhoni represent a stiff test for South Africa’s bowlers and most look in impressive form. On the bowling front, India’s ODI specialists Ashish Nehra and Praveen Kumar to compliment Zaheer Khan and Harbhjan Singh.

India got off to a terrible start on this tour with that innings defeat in the first Test. Since then though they have proved that to have been purely down to them being undercooked and lacking any warm, up games. They have improved with every game and I believe they will continue to improve. They have the batting firepower and the balance in bowling to merit being favourites for this series. However, the market disagrees with me and prices up South Africa as the favourites.

I am not one to moan about the markets being wrong. I prefer instead to take advantage and therefore my suggested bets for this series are:

In the series outright market:

BACK India to win for 5 points @ 2.58 at Betfair

In the series correct score market:

BACK India to win 5-0 for 2 points @ 26.0 at Stan James

BACK India to win 4-1 for 3 points @ 6.50 at Sportingbet

Bigjoe