Australia vs South Africa, South Africa tour of Australia, 2018, Today Match Prediction 11 Nov 2018

aus vs n/a Match Prediction & Analysis

South Africa are on a short tour to Australia to play 3 ODIs and 1 T20I. This is probably a fill gap series for Australia before they host India for a 2-month long tour.

South Africa started the tour with a thumping win by 6 wickets with more than 20 overs to spare. Australian batting was clueless against the South African attack spearheaded by the comeback man Dale Steyn. They folded meekly to 152 which proved very little to defend.

The Second ODI wasn’t a great show either by the hosts or the guests for that matter. They just won enough moments with the ball to have the result turned their way to keep the series alive and register their first win after 7 consecutive defeats.

AUSTRALIA PREVIEW

This year has been abysmal for Australian Cricket especially in the ODIs. They have lost 10 matches out of a total of 12 played this year, 7 of which were consecutive losses. 

Australia batting looks weakest ever. No batsman has reached 50 in the series so far and the batsmen have been able to churn out modest totals of 152 and 231, not without some lower order contribution.

The hosts were lucky that the South African team made similar errors in batting to lose wickets at crucial moments. Australian bowling made dents when necessary to win it for the team. 

But the margin of the victory was so small that we, and more importantly, Australia should not read too much into it. Australia are going to have to perform much better in the batting department in order to have any hopes of winning the ODI series at home against South Africa.

SOUTH AFRICA PREVIEW

South Africa, unlike Australia, broke their 4-match winning streak with a loss to Australia in the second ODI at Adelaide.

After winning the first ODI convincingly South Africa stuttered in a straightforward chase in the second ODI. The top order including, De Kock, Klassen fell to soft dismissals and Aiden Markram was run out after making a fluent 19. 

Before that, they did splendidly with the ball to bowl Australia out within 50 overs second time in a row on the series. If not for the lower order contributions Australia would have scored just about 200 in the first innings.

South Africa traditionally have folded in the tense chases and they did that again in the second ODI. But looking at their recent ODI record and being a better batting side compared to the hosts, South Africa will fancy their chances to win the last ODI at Hobart.

Weather Conditions

The last ODI that happened at this ground was way back in the World Cup 2015 when Australia beat Scotland by 7 wickets with about 35 overs to spare. This will be 71st ODI at this venue.

The conditions here provide early assistance to the seamers and becomes flat as the match progresses. The team winning the toss should look to bowl first to take the advantage of the conditions and then should look to chase later as the conditions become better for batting.

Toss: