Duminy and Smith can both star for the Proteas.
PROTEAS TO OPEN WITH A WIN
By Jonathan Turner
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A two-match Twenty20 series kickstarts England's clashes with South Africa this winter and it can hardly be said the Three Lions go into Friday's opener in Johannesburg in perfect shape.
The tour started well enough, with convincing warm-up victories against the Eagles and Warriors, but the first Twenty20 clash earlier this week didn't exactly go to plan.
Paul Collingwood's side were skittled for just 89 as they lost to South Africa 'A', their final seven wickets producing a pitiful 18 runs.
And based on that display and their recent T20 form it's hard to make any sort of case for them against the first-string South African side.
England have won just two of their last nine whereas the Proteas notched a record-breaking seven T20 victories in a row before their shock defeat to eventual champions Pakistan in the semi-finals of the World Twenty20 this summer.
The one question mark you'd put against South Africa is their ability to handle pressure in the big tournaments but that's not an issue this week and in virtually every other facet of the game they look the best Twenty20 side around right now.
They've got skipper Graeme Smith and all-rounder Jacques Kallis to get them off to a flying start at the top of the innings, bat all the way down, have bowling options aplenty and, just for good measure, are the sharpest fielding unit around too.
Contrast that with England who can't seem to decide on their opening pairing, are missing their best batsman in Kevin Pietersen and their all-rounder in Stuart Broad and also head into this with several other injury worries.
James Anderson (knee) and Graham Onions (back) both missed the game with South Africa 'A' and if England are to have any chance to overturning this South African side over 20 overs then they need their key men fit and firing.
That's not going to be the case in the coming days - though hopefully the situation will improve ahead of the 50-over matches - so we've no hesitation in opposing them for now.
It's 11/8 about the Proteas winning the two-match series, which considering they are no better than 8/15 for the opening game looks a decent price.
If they win game one they'll probably be shorter than 8/15 for the second match in which case the double would come to markedly less than 11/8.
The best bet on the match though concerns the highest opening partnership, with South Africa must-bet material at 4/5.
Smith and the fit-again Kallis were reunited at the top of the order in their thumping 212-run win over Zimbabwe on Tuesday and they've been by far the Proteas' most successful top two in recent Twenty20 games.
Five times in 2009 they've opened the innings and on every occasion they've outscored their opposition counterparts, with the partnerships being 40, 54, 17, 49 and 87. In the other five matches when they didn't open not once did the Proteas reach 40 for the first wicket.
And that could hardly contrast more sharply with England.
They've chopped and changed their front two and their last four opening tallies in Twenty20 internationals are a miserable 8, 3, 4 and 9, meaning you have to go back to their shock defeat to the Netherlands at the World Twenty20 for the last time they even managed to reach double figures.
Having praised the South African openers we've also got to make mention of JP Duminy who is arguably the most in-form batsman in one-day cricket right now.
He topped the scoring charts at the Champions League Twenty20 and carried on where he left on his return to the national side this week with an 87-ball unbeaten 111, his maiden ODI ton which earned him the man-of-the-match award.
He showed he remains in great nick right from the outset in that innings and is well worth backing at 5/1 to again top score for his side in Friday's opener at the Wanderers.
Preview posted at 1900GMT on 11/11/2009
