Cricket betting tips: South Africa versus India Boxing Day Test preview and best bets
Cricket betting tips: South Africa v India Boxing Day Test
1pt Ravi Jadeja top India first-innings batsman at 20/1 (bet365, Unibet)
1pt Kyle Verreynne top South Africa first-innings batsman at 8/1 (Coral, Ladbrokes)
RAVI JADEJA has quietly become one of India’s most reliable batsmen away from home, and he looks worth backing in the Boxing Day Test in Centurion.
Jadeja has had a few injuries to contend with in recent years, meaning his workload has needed managing, but the truth of the matter is that India haven’t played that much Test cricket away from home in the last year or so. However, Jadeja has generally delivered when donning the whites.
Early in his career, Jadeja was very much viewed as a bowling all-rounder, but his batting has always been blessed with bags of talent and he has matured into an outstanding, mature all-rounder.
When India toured England in the summer of 2021, Jadeja was regularly promoted up the order, so much faith was there in his ability to nullity James Anderson and co in seaming conditions, and he made a series of solid contributions in that series.
Since then, Jadeja’s batting has gone up another level. He returned to England to make a brilliant 104 in a one-off Test match at Edgbaston the following summer, that after India had slumped to 98-5 in tough conditions, and he then made a good 48 in the World Test Championship final at the Oval in June of this year. Scores of 37* and 61 followed on the tour of the Caribbean.
He could bat either number six or seven in this team, and I think those positions fit well in South Africa where the pitches generally offer pace, bounce and sideways movement for the quick bowlers, but do get easier to bat on once the ball gets the soft and the hot summer sun starts to burn the grass off the wickets.
India patently have lots of quality in their top order, namely Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli, but Jadeja is a genuine batsman in his own right now, one whose career average continues to trend towards that magical forty mark, and I want to be backing him in the top India first-innings batsman market at 20/1 (bet365, Unibet). The 16/1 with Sky Bet is also very fair.
On the same theme, KYLE VERREYNNE is too big to ignore having been chalked up at 8/1 for top South Africa first innings batsman.
Having been one of the few bright spots on last winter’s hammering in Australia, making a couple of fifties in the series and averaging 33.60, I thought Verreynne was unlucky to lose his spot in the Test line-up and certainly advocate his recall.
He’s not flashy and aggressive like his predecessor Quinton de Kock, but Verreynne is a plucky operator with a solid game, one which is built on a good defence. He’ll need that against a potent Indian bowling attack led by the outstanding Jasprit Bumrah.
South Africa found things much easier against a moderate West Indies outfit at home in February and March, but their batting had been found badly wanting against Australia and England previously, and I’m not yet convinced they have shaken off their batting blues.
That could open the door for a middle-order player such as Verreynne who has generally done well in tough circumstances – his sole Test hundred (136*) came in New Zealand and as already mentioned, he was one of South Africa’s better batsmen in Australia. Two hundreds in his last four domestic matches also firm up his case.
The returning Keegan Petersen was also considered, with some 6/1 on offer, but he might well return at number three, which would leave him with a tough task potentially facing plenty of the new ball.
I prefer the middle order, particularly at two points bigger, so Verreynne gets the nod.
The series itself promises much, but as already stated, I’m not fully convinced by South Africa, while it’s hard to know just how high motivation will be for India, just a matter of weeks after the Cricket World Cup at home which their whole year had been geared towards.
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