T20 Cricket World Cup: South Africa have the full package

South Africa have enjoyed a great summer in England and the weather ensured they’d at least finish their T20 series with the reigning champions of the world undefeated.

The Proteas, who have an unwanted reputation of buckling in the high pressure environment of knock-out cricket, can be backed at 11/2 to win their first T20 world crown in Sri Lanka.

They have a tough-looking group but, if they can overcome rivals Zimbabwe in their first match, as they have done in their two previous T20 meetings, qualification to the latter stages will be all but ensured.

They will be heading to Sri Lanka in good touch whatever happens in their final game with England as, prior to the wash-out in the second game (which South Africa were on course to win), the current world number one T20 side had won four games in succession and haven’t lost a series in the game’s shortest format since early 2009.

Hashim Amla has proved the scourge of the England attack this summer where he has scored runs in all conditions and formats, despite his billing as a Test match specialist alone.

He smashed 47 from 30 balls against England at Old Trafford in the second match of the series, dancing around the crease with the flamboyance of a T20 veteran to open up all kinds of gaps in the field
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This performance has seen him shorten to 2/1 favourite with Ladbrokes to be South Africa’s top runscorer in the tournament.

AB de Villiers, the Proteas captain, is a player who excels in the two shorter formats of cricket due to his eclectic batting style. He holds a strike rate of 119.75 in international T20s and is sure to pose a threat in the World Cup – he can be backed at 9/2 to be their top runscorer.

A batting line up brimming with talent also contains one of the all-time greats in Jacques Kallis. A 3/1 shot to be his team’s top scorer, Kallis averaged an impressive 34.5 runs in five games at the last World T20.

With the ball, the Proteas have the express pace of Dale Steyn and the imposing figure of Morne Morkel steaming in plus, in Johan Botha and Robin Petersen, they have some great slower ball options also.

Morkel took eight wickets in the 2010 tournament which has contributed to his total of 32 in 23 internationals with a 6.51 economy; an impressive rate in a batsman’s game. Botha heads to Sri Lanka in good wicket-taking form having taken five in his last four matches.

The South Africans are studded with talent in their batting ranks and have some of the best strike bowlers in world cricket at their disposal and, as their ranking suggests, only an internal catastrophe would stop them going far in Sri Lanka.

All odds and markets are corrects as of publication