India vs South Africa Prediction: 14/5 De Kock can be da man in 5th T20I

Jamie Pacheco is coming in on the back of a very sweet 8/1 tip on Alex Carey to top score for Australia in the first innings of the 3rd Ashes Test. He now previews the 5th and final T20I from Ahmedabad on Friday, December 19, start time 13:30 and live on TNT Sports.  

Jamie is siding with an India bowler who has good knowledge of this ground at 5/1 and SA’s main man with the bat to fire at 14/5. Check out his India vs South Africa Predictions here on Betfred Insights...   

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Match Preview:

India  

Well, that was a lot of effort last time out in trying to find good bets…only for 'smog' to play its part in Lucknow, the game abandoned without even having the toss due to poor visibility and excessively polluted air on the field.   

What that means, of course, is that India cannot lose the Series now; they're 2-1 up, and there's only one match left to play.  

Because the toss didn't take place, we can't be sure who was going to play.  

But a reminder that there's no Axar Patel for this one after he suffered an injury while Jasprit Bumrah, who had missed the third match for personal reasons, is likely to be available this time round.  

Sky Yadav seriously needs some runs and soon. With the World Cup not far away, he could be out of a job soon as skipper of the T20 side if the BCB decides he no longer justifies his place in the side as a batter.  

South Africa  

SA have been ringing the changes all Series, so who knows who they were planning on playing in Wednesday's match? 

The form of Quinton de Kock after his self-imposed exile from international cricket has been somewhat promising this Series, and it has solved what has been something of a problem position for them at the top of the order over the last couple of years. It also means that Aiden Markram can drop to three, which looks better suited to doing, than opening.  

If he plays, this could be an important game for David Miller. At 36, he's not getting any younger and his form over the last year or so hasn't been great. If they were picking their best team for a WC game tomorrow, he probably wouldn't be in it, with Dewald Brevis and Tristan Stubbs in pole position to claim the 4 and 5 spots, and Donovan Ferreira holding the number six spot, given he also bowls.   

Pitch and conditions

Ahmedabad is a ground we know well from the IPL, where the Gujarat Titans play.  

At international level, India have played here seven times, winning five of them.  

The two they lost were part of a 5-match series here against England back in 2021, where all five games were played at the same ground during the Covid pandemic.  

The last match was against New Zealand in 2023, a truly bizarre one where India managed 234 and then bowled New Zealand out for just 66. Shubman Gill, on his home ground, scored 126 not out. The one before that in 2021 saw India post 224/2, with England doing pretty well to get to 188 in reply.  

It supports the idea that this is a high-scoring ground, as evidenced by the average runs per over here being just short of 9. Could be a very, very high-scoring game.   

Match Winner odds

India are 4/11 (73%) for this one, with the Proteas 2/1; exactly the same prices as what was available ahead of the previous match.  

As we'll see in a second, this is a wicket for the pacers rather than the spinners, so this could be a good chance for SA to draw the Series because their pace bowlers can match India's, the spinners, not so much.  

But I'll leave this market alone anyway.  

*For all the latest and live India vs South Africa 5th IT20 Odds then head over to betfred.com 

India Top Bowler   

A quick look at the scorecards at the international level here at Ahmedabad reveals that the likes of Shardul Thakur, Jofra Archer, Buvi Kumar, Hardik Pandya, and Mark Wood have all had success here over the years. What do they have in common? All pace bowlers. 

We also know that Lockie Ferguson and Mohmmed Shami have taken a load of wickets here for the Titans in the past.  

Which brings us to Pandya. Not only has he taken four in a match here for India in the past, but this is ground he knows very well from playing here for two seasons as captain of the Titans, winning the IPL title in the first year. 

The obvious problem with Pandya is that he might not be given four overs as an all-rounder. But sometimes he does bowl all four, and he is, after all, 5/1, considerably bigger than the ones who probably will get through their full quota. Still, we'll keep stakes low.  

South Africa Top Batsman  

It's all been a bit feast or famine for de Kock on this Tour. Here are QDK's scores so far across three ODIs and three T20Is (ODIs first): 0, 8, 106, 0, 90, 1.  

That 1 last time out could mean he's about to seriously fire.  

More to the point, this is a lovely batting wicket that plays straight into his hands. He's also one of the few players in the side to have played here plenty in the past over the years in the IPL.  

14/5 isn't the biggest of prices, but there are good reasons for it.  

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