Australia and South Africa meet in the 2^nd of 3 test matches in Melbourne on the 26^th December and we have a look at the game from a betting angle.

Australia beat South Africa inside of two days in Brisbane in the 1^st Test. The home team had won the toss and sent the visitors in to bat and they were very quickly on top of them, bowling them all out for 152 with Mitch Starc the destroyer-in-chief with 3 for 41 off his 14 overs.

Australia found the going tough against South Africa’s bowling line-up, but 92 runs from Travis Head saw them reach 218 all out with Kagiso Rabada the pick of the South African bowlers with 4 for 76 off 17.3 overs.

Things were even worse for South Africa in their 2^nd innings, getting bowled out for 99 with only Zondo and Bavuma offering any resistance with Verreynne, who carried the 1^st innings for the Proteas, going without scoring.

Pat Cummins who recently returned to Test cricket in this match got 5 for 42 in just under 13 overs. Australia knocked up the 35 runs required for victory with 4 wickets down and extras were the top score with 19. Rabada claimed 4 scalps for 13 runs in his 4 overs.

Cricket fans will be hoping that the Melbourne Test pitch is much more suited to batting than was the case in Brisbane and hopefully we will get a Test match that goes somewhere close to the distance.

BETTING UPDATE

Australia are now 1/20 to win the 3 match series with South Africa on offer at 20/1 and you can get 16/1 the draw and an Australian 3-0 clean sweep is on offer at 4/6.

Click here for Test Series Betting

Match Betting – Click here to bet

Australia 1/3

Draw 7/1

South Africa 4/1

Suggested Bet: First Innings South African Top Bowler, Rabada at 22/10

Rabada is absolutely on fire at the moment and stood out as South Africa’s strike wicket taker in the 1^st Test. He probably won’t get as favourable conditions this time around, but the way he is bowling I can see him getting up amongst the wickets again.

Suggested Bet: First Innings Australian Top Batter, Marnus Labuschagne at 5/2

Labuschagne had a quiet opening Test match, but I don’t expect that silence to last and I am betting that his quality comes shining through in the first innings.

As far as the overall match result goes it is hard to argue with the betting as Australia certainly do look strong favourites. South Africa’s bowling line-up is one of the best around, but the brittle batting order looks likely to struggle against the Aussies once again.

Note: All prices correct at the time of writing but are subject to change