Sports Blog 02/02/2016: ODI Preview – South Africa v England, Wednesday 2nd February 2016

After a great victory in the Test Series, England head into the ODI series against the Proteas in buoyant mood.

Eoin Morgan comes back into the fold to lead the side, with plenty of the key men from the victorious Test side in his squad. Morgan will find most of his men in top form, whilst the South Africans will need to pick themselves up and dust themselves off for the next stage of England’s lengthy tour.

England’s last ODI series ended in a convincing 3-1 win over Pakistan in the UAE, a fantastic achievement made all the sweeter by the dynamic, entertaining style of play the English side adopted. Despite this previous away win, and the side brimming with confidence after the Test series, England are underdogs against the Proteas, priced up at a tempting 6/5 for the series . The hosts go in as uneasy 4/6 favourites. The most likely score line in the 5 game series (according to our traders!) is South Africa winning 3-2, priced up at 15/8. For those fancying an emphatic England series victory we are offering 6/1 about a 4-1 win, and a massive 25/1 about a 5-0 whitewash of the hosts. On the spreads South Africa are quoted as 2-5 favourites over England on the Series Supremacy market (based on 10pts for winning the Series, 5pts per game won by).

As ever in ODI cricket making use of the early powerplay overs will be of vital importance. England will look to stick with the aggressive combination of Alex Hales and Jason Roy at the top of the order (assuming Roy passes a late fitness test on his back), and our traders cannot split the two men in terms of their series runs prices. Both men are quoted at 175-185 for the 5 game series, roughly 36 runs per match. Total England 1st wicket partnership runs has also been priced up by our traders, with 178-188 the price available. The same market for the South African opening pair is pitched 30 runs higher at 208-218, perhaps showing one area where our traders feel the hosts may have a slight edge over their visitors. For South Africa it will be young wicket-keeper batsman Quentin de Kock and bearded maestro Hashim Amla opening up, and after both men scored heavily in the test series it is perhaps no surprise our traders are showing faith in them here. Amla series runs are pitched at 230-240, the joint-highest quote for any batsman in the series alongside AB de Villiers.

The emergence of Ben Stokes as an all-rounder of genuine quality has been one of the biggest positives for English cricket over the last year. His astonishing double hundred in the Test series was a joy to behold, but his wicket-taking bursts were just as important in England’s victory, and there’s every reason to expect him to play a key part with both bat and ball in this ODI series too. His series all-rounder performance is pitched at 270-285 (1pt per run, 10pts per catch, 20pts per wicket and 25pts per stumping) – considerably higher than any all-rounder South Africa possess. JP Duminy will look to provide his captain with a spin option as well as contributing valuable middle-order runs, but with his series all-rounder performance quote pitched at 230-240 it is clear that in Stokes England hold an edge over their hosts.

After his impressive showing in the Big Bash, Yorkshire leggie Adil Rashid will look to cement his place in England’s limited overs side. It has taken a long time for Rashid to make the step up to international level but he does now look a real threat at this level and is certainly someone the South Africans will have to be wary of in the middle overs. His series bowler performance is chalked up at 67-73 (based on 10pts per wicket with a 25pt bonus available for a 5 wicket haul), which could look cheap if Rashid continues the fine form he showed in Australia this winter. It will be interesting to see how Rashid performs in comparison to Imran Tahir, South Africa’s leg spin option and an established world level operator. Our traders quote Tahir’s series bowler performance 10 higher than Rashid, at 77-83. This reflects perhaps Tahir’s greater experience, but also England’s well-documented frailties against the running ball.

As ever, Spreadex have on offer a plethora of special markets to keep the punters entertained throughout the series. The aggregate number of runs scored off the 1st over in each game of the series is quoted at 17.75-18.5, which may well be of interest given the dynamic opening pairings mentioned earlier. If you fancy the big-hitting batsmen in the series to tee off, the likes of de Villiers, Buttler, Stokes and de Kock, then our series 6s quote of 49.5-51.5 may be of interest, or even the series ton ups price of 98-106. At the other end of the scale we have series ducks quoted at 7.8-8.1, and for fans of comedy run outs 5.6-5.9 is the price quoted about series run outs.

Spreadex will have the widest range of spread and fixed odds markets available on ever y game of the series, which gets underway on Wednesday morning. Stick with us for the most comprehensive in-running service, as well as updated series prices after each game. With the battle between these two sides always fierce, you won’t want to miss any of the action!

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