South Africa and Zimbabwe will face each other for the last time in this ODI series. It might be a dead rubber as South Africa have already won the series but it would mean a lot for Zimbabweans if they manage to sneak in a victory here. The match will be played at the Boland Park, Paarl where the pitch is expected to assist batsmen, so we might be up for a run fest for the first time in this series. In the previous two encounters, batsmen have found it very difficult to score runs and both the batting units have been miserable so far in the series.
South Africa
South Africa's batting unit will be boosted a lot as their skipper is declared fit and he will play in tomorrow's match. This means that either Reza Hendricks or Christian Jonker will have to make way for him. None of the South African batsmen have made any big scores in the series so far, they have been disappointing to say the least. With Faf in the team and pitch supporting runs, we might see different approach from the South African batsmen. They will be expected to put up a show in the final match of the series.
The bowlers have looked in great touch throughout the series and each and everyone of them has contributed to the team's cause. South Africa have applied the rotational policy in case of the bowlers and the chances are that we might see some changes tomorrow as well. Dale Steyn is fully fit and bowled excellent spell in the last match and also scored a fifty on top of that. Imran Tahir was very destructive with the ball as he rattled the Zimbabwean team by picking up 6 wickets. He might be rested for the last match for Tabraiz Shamsi who is the only player who has not been given a game yet. Lungi Ngidi might make way for Kagiso Rabada if South Africa stick with their rotational policy.
Zimbabwe
The batters of Zimbabwe have been very poor to say the least but you can't really blame them much as the conditions were not ideal for batting in both matches. The skipper, Hamilton Masakadza has got starts in both the matches but he couldn't convert them into big scores. The Zimbabwe batting very much relies on the shoulders of Brendon Taylor but he has disappointed. The likes of Craig Ervine and Sean Williams also haven't done anything with the bat. They might be looking for some replacements in the batting but it remains to be seen whether they will give opportunities to young blood or not.
The bowling of Zimbabwe has been really great with Kyle Jarvis and Tendai Chatara being the best bowlers of the team. All the other bowlers have also contributed. They will be expected to stick to the basics and deliver the goods. They will be more than happy to stick to their bowling line up which delivered the goods in the previous two matches.
Predict the score and win 10 SCR
This is a simple contest where all you have to do is just predict the score of the team which bats first. For example if South Africa bats first, predict their innings score and vice versa.
Here is mine:
South Africa : 310 ; Zimbabwe : 235
Rules of the contest
1. Only those will be eligible who comment before the first ball is delivered.
2. Upvoting this post is not necessary.
3. You can also add the reason why you think a particular team will score the number of runs you predicted (not compulsory).
4. If there is a tie, the prize will be distributed equally among the winners.
5. If no one will be able to predict the correct score, the prize will be given to the person whose prediction is close to the actual score.
The winners of the last two contests were @hassan and @idunique have received their rewards. Hassan ,however refused to take rewards and has shown full support for which I am very grateful to him.
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