Ranchi is the venue for first of three One Day Internationals between India and South Africa, the game takes place on Sunday and we take a look at the squads, recent form and the all important betting
This is a three match series which will be followed by 5 x T20’s. The Proteas won both matches in the two game test series which kicked off this tour, coming out on top by margins of 30 runs and 408 runs.
Let's start with the ODI squads.
India: KL Rahul (c/wk), Rohit Sharma, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Virat Kohli, Tilak Varma, Rishabh Pant (wk), Washington Sundar, Ravindra Jadeja, Kuldeep Yadav, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Harshit Rana, Ruturaj Gaikwad, Prasidh Krishna, Arshdeep Singh, Dhruv Jurel
South Africa: Temba Bavuma (captain), Ottneil Baartman, Corbin Bosch, Matthew Breetzke, Dewald Brevis, Nandre Burger, Quinton de Kock, Tony de Zorzi, Rubin Hermann, Keshav Maharaj, Marco Jansen, Aiden Markram, Lungi Ngidi, Ryan Rickelton, Prenelan Subrayen.
India Recent Form
India lost 2-1 in Australia in October. The Aussies wrapped the series up with wins by 7 wickets and 2 wickets in the first 2 matches and India gained some consolation with a 9 wicket victory in the third.
In Feb / March this year India won the ICC Champions Trophy, winning all 5 of their matches which were all staged in Dubai. Just before that tournament India completed a 3-0 clean sweep of a home series against England.
South Africa Recent Form
At the start of this month South Africa lost 2-1 n Pakistan. They lost the first match by 2 wickets, squared things up with an 8 wicket win in the second contest but Pakistan won the decider by 7 wickets.
The Proteas also won 2-1 in England in September and again ran out 2-1 winners in Australia in August.
South Africa made it to the semi finals of the Champions Trophy early in the year where they lost to New Zealand.
Recent Head to Head
The most recent series came in South Africa in December 2023 and India won it 2-1.
The last time the teams met on India soil came in the ICC World Cup in Kolkata in November 2023 and India cruised to a 243 run win
Overall the teams have met 94 times in this format with India winning 40 to South africa’s 51 with 3 no results.
The Betting
At the time of writing India are 0.37/1 to win and South Africa are 1.87/1
Prices subject to change
The Verdict
The match result betting for both test matches was not too dissimilar to this and the Proteas upset the odds on both occasions. There is a fair degree of synergy in terms of the squads on duty for the test series and those present here and that might not make life any easier as we may see some players given a break.
I think the Proteas can be a lot more competitive than the betting suggests with the team taking confidence from the achievement of the test squad, at least in terms of the batting and their price to hit the most sixes caught my eye.
Bet: South Africa to hit the most sixes at 16/10 with Pokerbet
Prices subject to change