South Africa v England: Third T20 betting preview, free tips, analysis & TV

Free cricket tips, best bets and analysis for South Africa v England for the third T20 international at Centurion.

Where to watch

Sky Sports Cricket, 12.30pm Sunday

Best bets

Over 23.5 Jonny Bairstow runs
2pts 5-6 Betway

Quinton de Kock -0.5 runs in matchbet v Jos Buttler
2pts 5-6 Coral

Lungi Ngidi top SA wicket-taker
1pt 10-3 general

South Africa v England match preview

Just three runs have separated South Africa and England in their first two T20 internationals yet England are 4-7 to win Sunday's series decider at Centurion.

Eoin Morgan's tourists threw away victory in the first contest, falling one run short of levelling the scores despite being ahead of the required rate for much of their chase. But they held their nerve to level the series in Durban on Friday as Tom Curran recovered from being hit for a four and a six in the final over to eke out a two-run success.

With the T20 World Cup in Australia eight months away, captain Morgan has resisted the temptation to tinker with his side but the series has thrown up some pertinent questions.

One is whether to persist with Jos Buttler at the top of the order or let Jonny Bairstow resume his opening partnership with Jason Roy which has been so successful in ODIs. Another is whether to persevere with Joe Denly or bring in Dawid Malan, who has scored a hundred and five fifties in just nine T20 innings for England.

It's hard to know what sort of form Malan is in given he hasn't played competitively for more than a month but Bairstow has suggested that he could be on the verge of a match-winning performance.

He has made decent starts in each of his limited-overs innings on the tour - scoring 19, 43, 23 & 35 - and should be capable of beating Betway's 23.5-run line at SuperSport Park, where the pitches can favour batsmen.

Quinton de Kock has taken to international limited-overs captaincy like a duck to water, hitting a century and two fifties - including a 22-ball 65 on Friday - in the five ODI and T20 clashes.

The Proteas skipper has been in fine fettle all winter, unlike England gloveman Buttler, whose highest score of the tour has been just 29. Coral ask De Kock to give Buttler a 0.5-run start in their handicap matchbet and on current form the South African should have Buttler's measure.

Paceman Lungi Ngidi was South Africa's hero in the first T20 clash as he defended seven off the final over to help the Proteas pull off an unlikely victory.

Ngidi is still raw as an international bowler but he has the variation to be extremely effective in one-day cricket, can bowl quickly and, crucially, has a knack of picking up wickets.

An economy rate of 7.35 in T20 internationals shows that he can go for runs but 17 wickets in nine games at an average of just 12.11 also tells you that he is adept at dismissing batsman.

Ngidi has taken three wickets in each of the T20s and the final ODI of the tour and looks likely to be the biggest danger to England's batsman again.

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