England v South Africa - 1st Test Preview

The 1^st test between England and South Africa has thankfully not been hampered by the weather, with a full day’s play taking place as we write. The much waited test series between England and South Africa started with a bang for the visitors when Andrew Strauss was brought out by some brilliant batting from Jonathan Trott and Alistair Cook, who took them to 172-1 until Trott went too hard and played a loose drive at an innocuous ball from Morkel. Despite this you can still get about England winning the test and that looks to be an absolute no brainer, with the weather only standing between them and a win.

This might seem strange to some who read the series preview given how highly I rate South Africa and the fact that the draw along with 1-0 England are tipped, but the trend with series in England has often been for visiting teams to start a little slowly mainly for reasons of acclimatization against a well prepared, fit team (generally known to be the fittest team in cricket), but in South Africa’s case the lack of actual match practice may well have hampered them in failing to clamp down fully on England’s start which lends the advantage towards the home side.

England have won six of their last 9 tests at the Oval, with only 1 defeat since 2001, while they romped home with the 1^st test against India here last year by an innings and eight runs. This won’t be anywhere near as one sides but South Africa have never won in 13 tests here at the Oval, haven’t won an opening test against a major nation since 2007 and average more than 30 an innings less than the hosts per innings in their last 10 tests, so the 13/8 offered on them winning this is extremely tempting and the obvious choice.

Advice

3 pts England to win 1^st test (13/8 general)