South Africa v England: T20 cricket betting preview, free tips & where to watch

Free cricket tips, best bets and analysis for South Africa v England in the Twenty20 series.

Where to watch

Live on Sky Sports Cricket, 4pm Wednesday

Best bets

England to win series 2-1
2pts 11-8 bet365, Betfred
Click to back this tip with bet365

David Miller top South Africa series runscorer
1pt 8-1 bet365
Click to back this tip with bet365

Mark Wood top England wicket-taker in first T20
2pts 7-2 general
Click to back this tip with bet365

Team news

South Africa
Veteran paceman Dale Steyn returns to the squad but Faf du Plessis and Kagiso Rabada have been rested.

England
Jofra Archer (elbow) is sidelined but Ben Stokes, Jos Buttler and Mark Wood return after being rested for the ODI series.

Series preview

World champions in 50-over cricket, England will be bidding to double up when the Twenty20 World Cup takes place this autumn and their preparation continues with a three-match T20 series in South Africa.

Eoin Morgan's side are 5-1 third-favourites for the tournament in October and November, behind hosts Australia at 11-4 and India, who thrashed New Zealand 5-0 last month, at 7-2.

Morgan will demand more focus from his men than they showed in the one-day series when they scrambled a scruffy 1-1 draw with a South Africa side rebuilding after last year's dismal World Cup campaign.

T20 superstars Ben Stokes and Jos Buttler return after being rested for the one-dayers but England are struggling to settle on their strongest batting order in 20-over cricket.

Buttler has been magnificent at the top of the order in franchise cricket while Jason Roy, Jonny Bairstow and brilliant youngster Tom Banton – not in the squad for this series – are also pushing for places at the World Cup.

Twenty20 series schedule

Wednesday, 4pm East London

Friday, 4pm Durban

Sunday, 12.30pm Centurion

Dawid Malan has made a stunning start to his England T20 career, scoring five fifties and a century in just nine innings, and captain Morgan slammed 192 runs off just 99 balls in November's 3-2 series win in New Zealand.

England's bowlers were disappointing in the rain-affected one-day series but Mark Wood, Chris Jordan, the Curran brothers, and spinners Adil Rashid and Moeen Ali are classy T20 performers.

South Africa, led by the inspirational Quinton de Kock, are still weighing up an international recall for AB de Villiers but with England's big guns back they may come up short in the series.

One top runscorer price that catches the eye is the 8-1 about David Miller, a vastly experienced Twenty20 batsman who hits the ball fiercely.

Miller had an underwhelming Big Bash campaign with Hobart Hurricanes until whacking an unbeaten 90 off just 48 balls against Adelaide Strikers and his only innings of the one-day series against England yielded 69 not out from 53 deliveries in Johannesburg.

First Twenty 20 international preview

The series starts with a day-night clash in East London on Wednesday and there is little course form for punters to assess at Buffalo Park.

This is just the third Twenty20 international to be played at the venue, where South Africa beat Zimbabwe by 34 runs in 2018 thanks to a five-wicket haul from leg-spinner Imran Tahir.

A cloudy but warm afternoon is forecast and England have been well backed to go 1-0 up in the series.

For all their batting riches, however, they have won only ten of their 18 completed T20 matches since the start of 2018 and are missing ace paceman Jofra Archer, sidelined with a long-term elbow injury.

Mark Wood made up for Archer's absence towards the end of the Test series, taking nine wickets in the final game at The Wanderers, and his blistering pace is a major threat in T20s.

The Durham man has played only five 20-over internationals in five years since his debut but he has claimed 11 wickets in those outings, taking 3-9 against the West Indies in Basseterre last March.

Wood looked back to his best in the Test series and after sitting out the one-dayers he should be eager to stake his claim for a place in the T20 World Cup squad.

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