South Africa vs India Prediction: Attack the 3/1 on Chak in 3rd T20i

South Africa host India on Wednesday at Centurion for the third T20I of the Series which is currently tied at 1-1, begins at 15:00 and is broadcast live on Sky Sports Cricket.  

Jamie Pacheco has 25/1 and 3/1 selections in this one and will talk you through it all in his betting preview for us here at Betfred Insights with those all-important South Africa vs India Predictions...

South Africa  

The two matches so far this Series produced two very different sorts of encounters, the first one seeing India post a big total that South Africa were never really in with a chance of chasing, and the second seeing the Proteas just about getting over the line, chasing a low 125 with just an over to spare.  

Curiously, in the second match, our two predictions from the first game both won, showing you that sometimes in this game, timing is everything. Hardik Pandya (39) and Tristan Stubbs (47) both top-scored with the bat at fancy prices but sadly, it came a game too late.  

It was a good team effort with the ball on Sunday with five different bowlers each taking one wicket, while Stubbs' composed and pragmatic 47 off 41 was uncharacteristic from a player who is normally so explosive, but exactly what the hosts needed on the day.  

They're likely to be unchanged here.  

Possible XI:  Hendricks, Rickleton, Markram, Stubbs, Klassen, Miler, Jansen, Maharaj, Simelane, Coetzee, Peter.  

India 

A poor performance with the bat in the second T20I cost India dearly, although they at least made a good fist of trying to defend that subpar total valiantly, with Varun Chakravarthy in particular doing with his but with 5-17 after having already taken 3/25 on Friday; this is a man in serious form. More on him in a bit.  

Skipper Sky Yadav has yet to get going and a handful of matches without top-scoring in any of them will be a bit of a concern but he's an extremely aggressive player who always goes for his shots from the start, so it's normal there will be a few times that it just doesn't come off.  

Of interest was the promotion of Axar Patel up the order to bat at five, presumably because they wanted another left-hander in the middle-order. He certainly did his job with a fine 27 off 21 that on another day, could have been a match-winning effort.  

India may well be unchanged themselves for this one.  

Possible XI: Abishek Sharma, Samson, Sky Yadav, Tilak Varma, Hardik, Rinku Singh, Patel, Avesh Khan, Arshdeep Singh, Chakravarthy.  

Pitch and conditions  

We're at Centurion for this one, which hasn't been a particularly happy hunting ground for SA of late.   

In their last five T20I matches here, they won just once. In March 2023 they chased a monster 259 with an over to spare after a brilliant century from Quinton de Kock (remember him?) and a good 30 off 21 from Aiden Markram. But they lost the four before that with England, Pakistan (twice) and the West Indies all beating the hosts here.   

This is one of those grounds where predicting what a par score is can be very tricky but it does generally favour the chaser, so both skippers will probably want to have a bowl if the toss goes their way.  

South Africa vs India 3rd ODI Odds

Things are pretty even on the match winner market, with South Africa 21/10 (implied probability of 49%) playing 8/11 India (implied probability 58%).  

Given it's honours even after one match and that it all looked pretty even before the Series started, and these tight odds are no surprise.  

You could probably just about make a case for the hosts at those odds but it will look a poor bet if SA have to bat second, so if you're desperate to play this market - you don't have to - blindly backing the chasing side probably isn't the worst bet.  

India Top Batsman  

We wouldn't be doing our jobs properly if we didn't identify the 25/1 on Axar Patel for India top bat as the stand-out price here.  

Having been promoted to number five on Sunday, he was on 27 and heading for a win at a big price when he was dismissed by arguably the most unfortunate way you can get out: via deflection off the bowler at the non-striker's end, to be run out. 

Not only can Axar backers have felt unlucky by the mode of the dismissal but only an 18th over that included two fours and a six from Hardik that eventually got him to 39, saw him pip Axar to top batsmen honours. 

The big-hitting left-hander may get another promotion given his good knock last time and come in earlier to mix up the right-handers and left-handers in the line-up, but even just batting at his usual place at seven, he could have a decent chance, if it's a tricky pitch again. The 25/1 is simply too big.