South Africa vs Bangladesh 1st Test Betting Tips 31/03/2022

After suffering the humiliation of being beaten at home in an ODI series by a team the size of Bangladesh, South Africa would not be hoping for a much better effort in the Test series, the first match of which starts on March 31 (Thursday) at Kingsmead, Durban. The match is to begin at 1:30pm IST.

Teams Status

South Africa

Despite what happened in the ODIs, South Africa did beat the mighty Indian side 2-1 at home not so long ago so they have those memories to use as a confidence booster ahead of the first Test here.

Furthermore, they impressed away in New Zealand as well recently, drawing the series despite being in the backyard of the ICC World Test champions.

South Africa will be without a number of the first-choice players due to their participation in the ongoing Indian Premier League. That said, they should still be able to field a strong playing eleven.

With no Kagiso Rabada, Lungi Ngidi, Marco Jansen and Anrich Nortje, the brunt of fast bowling will be shouldered by Duanne Olivier, Lutho Sipamla and one of Daryn Dupavillon and Glenton Stuurman.

South Africa are currently second on the ICC World Test Championship standings behind only Australia.

Bangladesh

Like South Africa, one of Bangladesh Test unit’s recent highs also came in New Zealand’s backyard where they won for the first time.

The Tigers have been full of surprises of late. After being humiliated at their own home by Pakistan late last year, they were expected to go into full meltdown mode, even more so because some difficult away tours were coming up.

But much to the surprise of everyone, they did what they did in New Zealand and then stunned South Africa in the ODIs recently.

It goes without saying that Bangladesh have never won a Test in South Africa. In fact, each of their six prior losses have been lopsided with not even a hint of equality. This, of course, is a Bangladesh team cut from a different cloth.

Despite their win in New Zealand it should be noted that that was their only Test win of the season so far. Thus, Bangladesh sit second last in ICC World Test Championship standings above only England.

What Do the Sportsbooks Say?

South Africa	Draw	Bangladesh
1.55	3.85	6.0
1.588	4.04	6.05
1.55	3.85	6.0

Despite South Africa missing many key players and Bangladesh not missing many, this still qualifies as somewhat of a mismatch on paper. This is why South Africa are sizable favourites for the 1st Test. Parimatch and Sportsbet both have South Africa priced at 1.55, Bangladesh at 6.0 and Draw at 3.85. Meanwhile, Paripesa has South Africa available for 1.588, Bangladesh for 6.05 and Draw for 4.04.

Tipster’s Angle

Tip: Keegan Petersen to score more than 31.5 runs @ 1.85

Keegan Petersen’s introduction to Test cricket wasn’t smooth as he had struggled on the rough surfaces in the Caribbean. However, he was brilliant in the home Test series against India, scoring a trio of half centuries and getting himself noticed. We think that he’d continue against Bangladesh where he left off against India. A mere 31.5 runs or more should be nothing for a man of his class. The odds have been sourced from Sportsbet.

Tip: Mushfiqur Rahim to score more than 24.5 runs @ 1.87

This was a direct competition between Tamim Iqbal and Mushfiqur Rahim as both are Bangladesh’s highest averaging batters in away Tests. Tamim’s away average of 41.69 is higher than Rahim’s away average of 37.38 but we go with the latter because Tamim will have to face the new ball and Rahim might not have to. The odds have been sourced from Parimatch.

Conclusion

Conventional wisdom says South Africa should win the series comfortably but then Bangladesh, as deceptively easy as they seem, have a couple of uber experienced nifty customers. This could be another landmine of a series so caution is advised.

Zohaib Ahmed

15:49, 30 Mar 2022

Senior Author

Zohaib Ahmed

Senior Author

15:49, 30 Mar 2022

Zohaib Ahmed is a sports journalist whose profession is to report and edit but whose passion is to predict and bet. He’s been in the industry for more than a decade and has worked/written for various bookmakers/tipsters. His expertise is in cricket, football, MMA, boxing and basketball.