THE EDGE: The Edge previews the Champions Trophy clash between ENGLAND v SOUTH AFRICA with a recommended BETDAQ bet.
England v South Africa
MATCH OVERVIEW:
The Champions Trophy continues on BETDAQ Betting Exchange this weekend as England take on South Africa. What could have been the biggest game of the tournament yet was put on ice after England crashed out earlier in the week with a defeat to Afghanistan. England came into the tournament under immense pressure with a woeful ODI record recently, and now they’ll have a full blown post-mortem when they get back. Jos Butler’s role as captain will definitely be in the spotlight; he got the full backing of Roy Key after the terrible ODI World Cup, but he might just set down himself – he is already saying he is considering his future.
Even though England lost to Australia in their opening game, they batted very well and Australia are current ODI World Champions. It looked like the stars were aligning for England when Australia v South Africa was rained off, meaning a win here would have put them over South Africa if they managed to beat Afghanistan – that turned out to be easier said than done! Now this game is all about South Africa and their place in the Semi-Final; South Africa fans will be keeping an eye on the Australia v Afghanistan result on Friday too.
Another interesting thing heading into the weekend is New Zealand are currently ahead of India on net run rate in the other Group, and with Pakistan v Bangladesh rained off, that fixture on Sunday will effectively allow those sides to “pick” their Semi-Final. We should have a good game here though – England desperately need something good to happen to them – South Africa need to win for the Semi-Finals. There’s bound to be drama!
WEATHER AND PITCH WATCH:
We’ve already lost two games this week at the time of writing with rain in Pakistan, so definitely keep one eye on the radar. Scoring conditions have been very good across most grounds in Pakistan – scoring conditions have actually been tougher in Dubai! This will be the third and final game in Karachi and so far it’s paid to bat first – New Zealand posted 320/5 to beat Pakistan by 60 runs and then South Africa posted 315/6 to beat Afghanistan by 107 runs. Chasing has been very popular across all cricket recently, but surely you bat first here.
RECOMMENDED BET:
It’s no surprise to see South Africa as the favourites here; I would actually have them a little shorter than 1.84. England have done well with the bat at the Champions Trophy thus far, but their bowling just keeps letting them down. In what should be good scoring conditions, it’s hard to see the South African batting line-up not taking advantage of that. It was unfortunate that we didn’t see Australia v South Africa to see how their bowling went there, but they were impressive against Afghanistan. I’m happy to keep stakes low before the off, because batting first will offer an edge.
The Edge Says:
One point win South Africa to beat England at 1.84 with BETDAQ Betting Exchange
View the market here -> https://betdaq.biz/CTSoEn
IN-RUNNING STRATEGY:
As I said above, I do feel that batting first will offer an edge for either side. It’s actually very interesting to see what the winning captain decides to do at the toss because chasing has obviously been the popular choice in cricket this season. Given the way things have gone so far at this tournament too; it makes sense to take on the England bowling, and that’s where I see the most market movement in-running.
