India v South Africa Third T20I: Expert Predictions & Analysis

India v South Africa predictions: 

• India to win - 1.8 @ Rajabets Sports
• Abhishek Sharma under 25.5 runs - 1.83 @ Rajabets Sports
• Varun Chakravarthy to take 2+ wickets - 2.25 @ Rajabets Sports

When: Wednesday 13 November, 8:30pm IST

Where: SuperSport Park, Centurion

Watch: Sports 18, JioCinema

Best Odds: South Africa 2.00, India 1.80

South Africa made amends for a poor performance in the opening game of the series and now take the momentum with them to Centurion, although it was short of a convincing victory. 

Centurion locals have been starved of home victories in recent years, witnessing their team lose eight of the ten completed white ball games to be played since 2020, suffering 1-4 records in each format. 

Cricket betting sites are now barely splitting the two teams in light of the 1-1 series score, and after gambling.com readers came out on top after the second T20I thanks to our two correct South Africa v India best bets, we too will be hoping to continue improving our results as the series goes on!

The Numbers That Matter

• Four of the six highest first innings scores in Centurion were chased
• The average first innings score in Centurion is 188
• The last five Centurion T20Is were won chasing (South Africa lost four)
• David Miller in Centurion: 200 runs from ten inns, avg 25.00, best 48
• Arshdeep Singh took wickets in 14 of his last 15 T20Is

India’s long-term form is too good to ignore

Sunday’s result on a slow turner in Gqeberha was primarily because of the heroics of one man, with Tristan Stubbs the only Proteas batter to score 25+ runs whilst he bashed almost half of their boundaries. 

The South African batting order has otherwise been far too short of runs so far in this series, with the sextet of Aiden Markram, Ryan Rickelton, Heinrich Klaasen, David Miller, Reeza Hendricks and Marco Jansen collectively averaging just 12 and none of them able to go past 25.  

As far as the bowling has been concerned, Gerald Coetzee’s 3-37 in the opening game was the only multiple wicket haul as he and his colleagues struggled to produce devastating spells, although all six of them returned excellent economy rates in Gqeberha.

India were on an 11-game winning streak in this format prior to the second T20I, even despite fielding 26 different players in that time, and they’ve had a far better spread of runs and wickets across their squad.

Sunday’s fixture would have been a lot different were it not for Stubbs’ single-handed effort and we’re anticipating India to show their class at a venue that hasn’t been kind to South Africa in recent years. 

Prediction: India to win - 1.8 @ Rajabets Sports

Running out of patience with Abhishek Sharma?

One of the big disappointments for India so far has been opening batter Abhishek Sharma, who really should be doing better considering he has been playing nothing but T20 cricket since the IPL.

That IPL season showed what he’s capable of at his best, as did his breakout score of 100 against Zimbabwe in Harare, but he has otherwise been poor at this level with his nine T20I innings producing a second-best score of just 16.

It’s therefore quite remarkable that Indian cricket betting sites have set an over/under mark of 25.5 runs for this match given he finished short of that in all but one start.

There was hope that he had played himself back into form with three consecutive 30+ run scores for India A in the Emerging Teams Asia Cup, but subsequent series against Bangladesh and South Africa show that hasn’t been the case.

South African seamer Gerald Coetzee has dismissed him twice in six balls so he’ll be challenged from the outset. 

Prediction: Abhishek Sharma under 25.5 runs - 1.83 @ Rajabets Sports

No stopping one of India’s second comings

33-year-old leg-spinner Varun Chakravarthy completely redesigned his craft, dropping traditional side-spin to focus on over-spin which has given his bowling a lot more dip and brought the variations a pitch can offer into play.

Frustrated with three years off the international scene, particularly missing selection for the post-World Cup tour of Zimbabwe behind Ravi Bishnoi, Varun has been exceptionally busy in domestic cricket during that time and this series has been the fruits of all of his labour. 

His accuracy has improved year-by-year and it showed when he struck the stumps four times to dismiss four different top-seven batters and his eight wickets have largely been responsible for the poor outputs of the Proteas batters.

Varun has dismissed six different top-seven batters in the first two matches, including Klaasen and Miller twice. 

His series figures against South Africa’s top seven from the second T20I is an astonishing 8-39 from 46 balls, and that goes with 4-62 from 6.3 overs in the 2024 IPL to those same seven batters, demonstrating his authority over them extends across more than two games. 

Better than even money on the best Indian betting apps looks to be excellent value here. 

Prediction: Varun Chakravarthy to take 2+ wickets - 2.25 @ Rajabets Sports