England v South Africa First T20 Player Tips: Markram the man to follow

England v South Africa
Wednesday 27 July, 18:30
TV: Live on Sky Sports

Get on the Mark

Jannieman Malan was a major disappointment for punters in the ODI series, failing to land three times despite a massive win rate. For the T20 series we have another South African hitter to put faith in.

Aiden Markram comes into the series with an astonishing record. He has won top South Africa bat eight times in the last 17. That's a success rate of 47%. Sportsbook rate him at 5/1.

Markram is a strong hitter and has solid technical ability. It is possible that he could open the batting in place of Reeza Hendricks if South Africa want to find extra room for Tristan Stubbs or Rilee Rossouw.

But if not, we expect him at bat at No 4. In the top runscorers in T20 in the last two years, only Mohammad Rizwan, Devon Conway and Jos Buttler have superior averages to Markam's 48. His strike rate of 148 is unrivalled.

Quinton De Kock has been boosted to 11/4 jolly status but on win rate we can't get inmvolved. His record in terms of average and strike rate is also inferior to Markram. Markram also has appeal at 12/1 to be top match bat.

With the ball, Tabraiz Shamsi is the standout with returns and price. Sportsbook go 7/2 about a spinner who has won money on the market nine times in 29. Bet the Sportsbook markets here.

Top South Africa bat wins/matches last two years
Markram 8/17
QDK 5/19
RVD 5/23
Miller 2/21
Klaasen 2/20

Top South Africa bowler wins/matches last two years
Rabada 2 2t/20
Shamsi 4 5t/29
Nortje 2 3t/17
Ngidi 3 t/12
Phelukawayo 1/8
Pretorius 3 2t/16
t=tie

Marvellous Malan

Dawid Malan has been the go-to man for England in this format and on the top runscorer market for several years. His win rate holds up time and time again in relation to price.

Sportsbook offer 4/1 about a guy who wins 29% of the time. We must also take note of his price to be top match runscorer at an excellent 17/2. He manages that 18.4% of the time across his career.

Unusually, there are two more England players who are bets on win rate: Jos Buttler and Moeen Ali. Buttler is boosted to 3/1 giving a 3% edge. Moeen, a pick in our match preview at 11/1, has an excellent strike rate closer to a 4s chance. Bet the Sportsbook markets here.

Top England wins/matches last two years
Roy 6/29
Malan 10/34
Buttler 7/25
Bairstow 4/33
Moeen 6/27
Livingstone 2/18
Jordan 1/38
Rashid 0/36

Top bowler wins/matches
Jordan 6 4t/37
Rashid 5 8t/33
Mahmood 1 t/11
Moeen 1 1t/25

England's power game

England are hot favourites to win game one. This is because of home advantage and their record as an aggressive batting line-up. They hate to waste balls.

In that regard it could be something of a mismatch. South Africa must change their mentality to keep pace. If we take the possible top six line-ups for each team and work out the cumulative boundary percentage for those in the last two years, England's number comes in at 18.5% and South Africa's 16.4%. That's quite the gap.

So although Sportsbook's 8/13 that England hit most sixes seems mean, it is probably not short enough. Under the same study period, England average 6.6 sixes per game and South Africa 5.2

England v South Africa in-play strategies on Cricket...Only Bettor