The West Indies and South Africa are tied at 1-1 after the Proteas produced an excellent bowling attack in Game Two.
The set a moderate total of 167 and it was enough as South African couldn’t muster much with the bat.
West Indies has been well-favored to win at the online sportsbook and it’s capable of bouncing back on the strength of its hitting lineup.
Powerplay Crucial For Windies
Allowing South Africa to go 69/0 in the power play isn’t going to win the West Indies any cricket matches.
It wasn’t an ideal start to the game, and although they produced a solid comeback to limit the Proteas to 71 runs in the final 10 overs, the damage had been done.
West Indies needs a much stronger start with bat and ball. It was traveling well enough at 31/1 with the bat, but quickly fell to 70/5 after a mid-innings collapse. If the Windies want to remain competitive in this series, they will need to stay focused.
“We knew they will come hard at us. I think we lost it between the seventh to the 11th over as we lost three wickets there,” Windies captain Kieron Pollard told ICC Cricket. “We are aggressive players by nature and that is no secret but myself and (Nicholas) Pooran needed to control our aggression. We accept that for the team. Their spinners did a pretty good job. In the middle overs, maybe we can rotate a little bit more.”
🔥 Universe Boss doing his thing 🔥@henrygayle 👌🏼#GladiatorsForever #PurlpleForce pic.twitter.com/I4M7StrzhA
— Quetta Gladiators (@TeamQuetta) June 26, 2021
The Windies are a big six-hitting team. It has hit the most sixes in 11 of its last 12 completed T20Is, which is an impressive statistic.
If it’s to win and justify the cricket betting odds of -155 odds, Chris Gayle will need to step up. He has been disappointing and he scored only eight runs from six balls in Game Two.
The openers did their job, but Gayle and his teammates failed to deliver in the back-end of the innings. Gayle, Pooran, Pollard and Andre Russell combined for 23 runs, which is a shocking effort.
Proteas Looking to Ride Momentum
South Africa made short work of the West Indies to score a comfortable Game Two victory.
After setting a total of 166, which included 42 runs from Reeza Hendricks and 46 runs from captain Temba Bavuma, the Proteas were able to hold on gamely for the victory.
The bowling attack was outstanding, especially the spinners. Kagiso Rabada had three wickets from his four overs, and although expensive in giving up 37 runs, wickets are key in T20 cricket.
🇿🇦 They’ve been solid at the top of the order#WIvSA #ThatsOurGame pic.twitter.com/c8awABcN7h
— Cricket South Africa (@OfficialCSA) June 28, 2021
George Linde had two wickets and was able to limit the damage to just 19 runs.
“The spinners were amazing. George bounced back superbly,” Bavuma said of Linde. “It makes your game easy as a skipper if your spinners control the game. We wanted to keep our energies high and maintain the intensity. Bowling quick is our strength. Rabada and Nortje try to do that. And also change the pace according to the wicket.”
South Africa is capable of producing the upset on Tuesday afternoon. Bettors get +115 odds, which is better than we expected, but beating the West Indies at home isn’t easy.
It will need to reproduce the efforts from Game Two and hope the Windies middle-order batting suffers again.
West Indies vs South Africa Betting Trends
South Africa’s win was just its second victory over West Indies in the last six T20 internationals.
Interestingly, in South Africa’s last five wins against the West Indies, it has batted first. Getting off to a good start has been the key to success for the Proteas, so if they win the toss, they will likely bat.
Conversely, all of the West Indies wins over South Africa have come batting second. It’s an unusual statistic for both teams, which makes the toss highly important.
Chris Gayle has the most runs of any player in West Indies vs South Africa history. He has 347 runs from nine games, which is well above teammate Dwayne Bravo, who has played 12 matches and scored 151 runs.
Daniel Miller and Hendricks are the leading South Africans in the run department with 125 and 113, respectively, but they have played only 10 games between them.
West Indies vs South African Pick
Laying -155 for West Indies isn’t easy, but we think it will rebound and take the 2-1 series lead.
You can’t keep Gayle down for long and we’re expecting a big performance from the enigmatic power hitter.
The West Indies middle-order shouldn’t struggle in consecutive games.
