South Africa v New Zealand Cricket ODI Series

South Africa comprehensively outplayed New Zealand to seal a 2-0 Test Match series victory and are strong favourites to inflict further damage on the visitors in the ODI series.

The Proteas won the first Test in Cape Town by an innings and 27 runs and followed up with an even more emphatic winning margin at Port Elizabeth. After being bowled out for 211 in their second innings, New Zealand were still 193 runs behind the first innings total set by South Africa. Fast bowler Dale Steyn finished with impressive match figures of eight for 65.

By the start of play on the fourth day, New Zealand were in deep trouble at 157 for four and were pinning their hopes on Dean Brownlie and BJ Watling to put up stubborn resistance. Although both players reached the fifty mark, their partnership ended at 98 when Jacques Kallis had Brownlie caught behind by AB de Villiers. Watling was joined at the crease by Colin Munro and the Black Caps passed the 200 mark but the arrival of the new ball sent the wickets tumbling.

Morne Morkel had Munro caught at third slip by Alviro Petersen and Steyn ended all hopes of a New Zealand recovery when dismissing Watling shortly afterwards. The final three New Zealand wickets fell in successive overs to bring the curtain down on a devastating two-match series for the visitors. There will be no time to dwell on their poor performances with the 3-match ODI series getting under way in Paarl on 19^th January.

The opening match is in Boland followed by successive day-nighters in Kimberley and Potchefstroom. The Black Caps will have several new personnel to choose from for this different format of cricket and will be desperate to restore some pride against he in-form South Africans. Among those joining the squad will be Kyle Mills, Rob Nicol and Nathan McCullum. For those making the switch from the Test Match arena to ODI, this represents an opportunity to exact some revenge on their tormentors after being completely outplayed in the five-day format.

Dale Steyn was rightly awarded man of the match in Port Elizabeth for his excellent bowling performance and other South Africans in prime form are Morne Morkel, AB de Villiers, Hashim Amla, Faf du Plessis, Graeme Smith, Robin Peterson and Rory Kleinveldt. New Zealand are currently ranked only ninth in ODI cricket but they can look back to their surprise victory over the Proteas in Dhaka in the World Cup quarter-final of 2011.

The pitches for the ODI series should be ideal for scoring runs and Sri Lanka chased down a target of 300 on Kimberley’s flat surface last season. From the spectator point of view, it would certainly be nice to see the New Zealand batsmen restore some pride over the three matches.

Not surprisingly, South Africa are hot favourites at 1-6 to win the series with New Zealand 6-1 and a drawn series at 9-1. Many expect South Africa to remain in the ascendancy and they are only 11-10 to complete a 3-0 whitewash in the latest Cricket betting odds. There are also markets for Top batsman for either side and Top bowler.

South Africa v New Zealand ODI Betting