England v South Africa First Test: 3 Bets to Take

The highly anticipated Test cricket series between England and South Africa gets underway today at the Home of Cricket, Lord’s. the Proteas sit on top of the ICC World Test Championship standings with 71.43% points while England are in 7th position with 33.33%.

South Africa come into this match on the back of an innings thrashing at the hands of England Lions but the Proteas are in good form in Tests, winning five of their last six matches.

Let’s take a look at the three bets to take for the

England

Both teams come into this game in good form in this format. England have won all four of their matches under Brendon McCullum while the Proteas have won five of their seven matches this season.

England have had South Africa’s number in Test matches of late, winning the last two series 3-1. This will be a tightly contested one, but I see the home side winning this Test with the Proteas still acclimatizing to English conditions in Tests.

There’s also value in backing South Africa at 4.75, they’ve won five and lost eight out of their 17 Tests at Lord’s.

Marco Jansen

If selected, Jansen could cause a lot of problems for the English batsmen at the Home of Cricket with his pace, movement and bounce, not to mention the fact that he’s a lefty. Jansen has had a fantastic start to his Test career, taking 28 Test wickets in just 5 matches. He was fantastic in the last Test he played, taking 4 wickets in the first innings of the second match of the series against New Zealand.

The Lord’s surface looked very green and I expect the bowlers to take full advantage of it. Back Jansen to be South Africa’s top bowler.

Most Sixes

I expect England to hit more sixes than Dean Elgar’s side with their new Bazball approach. Players like Joe Root, Bairstow and Ben Stokes will look to play positively, especially against Keshav Maharaj. I don’t see the Proteas looking to adopt England’s new approach to Test cricket.