Paarl Royals v Pretoria Capitals SAT20 Tips: Capitals underrated to unseat Royals

• Capitals should probably be favs

• Three top-bat wagers

• Toss bias in play

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Paarl Royals v Pretoria Capitals
Friday 12 January, 15:30
TV: Live on Sky Sports

Paarl Royals v Pretoria Capitals team news

Paarl are reliant on Jos Buttler bringing his A-game. Buttler looked to be approaching some sort of form in the West Indies for England. The batting is light otherwise. Fabian Allen could come in for Bjorn Fortuin if there are concerns over a remodelled action.

Possible XI: Buttler, Roy, Lubbe, Vilas, Miller, van Buuren, Phehlukwayo, Jones, Allen/Fortuin, Shamsi, Ngidi

We don't expect Anrich Nortje to be available for Pretoria, who won the ladder but lost the final last term. Daryl Dupavillon is a solid replacement though and his numbers are on a par to Nortje in the format.

Possible XI: Jacks, Salt, Rossouw, de Bruyn, Verreynne, Neesham, Parnell, Bosch, Pretorius, Rashid, Dupavillon

Paarl Royals v Pretoria Capitals pitch report

Only five of the last 12 first-innings in men's T20 have seen 160 busted at Boland Park. Eight of those have been won by the chaser. An immediate strategy thought, then, is shorting a par line in the low 160s.

Paarl Royals v Pretoria Capitals match odds

Paarl are 1.824/5 favourites with Pretoria 2.1211/10. The market may have been impacted by the absence of Nortje.

That doesn't justify the gap in odds, however. Pretoria were the best team in this league last season, winning the ladder but losing the final. They beat Paarl in two of the three matches in convincing fashion, too.

At the very least this should be a choice affair. There would need to be something wrong in the Capitals camp for them not to be going off odds-on this year. We will keep the toss bias on side, though.

Paarl Royals v Pretoria Capitals player bets

Buttler won 55% of the time on top bats last term so we have to be keen on Sportsbook's boosted 5/23.50 about a repeat. For Pretoria we recognise Phil Salt (30% last season) and Will Jacks (three wins in his seven games) as value at a boosted 3/14.00 and 16/54.20 respectively.

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*Read Ed's Big bash analysis here

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