Hosts to start with a win

Hosts South Africa take on West Indies in the first match of the Twenty20 World Cup on Tuesday and though the Windies have some firepower, South Africa have a much better team and should win this one at 8/15.

Twenty20 is tougher to pick winners in than the other forms of cricket because of its format but even so, home advantage and a superior team should mean that South Africa prove to be too good for West Indies.

In Graeme Smith, AB De Villiers, Herschelle Gibbs, Justin Kemp and Mark Boucher, they have as good, and as attacking a group of batsmen as any team in the competition, part of the reason I can see them going a long way.

It was interesting to hear De Villiers say that he hopes his side fields first. Clearly he feels that it is hard to know what will make a good target, and a lot easier to chase one down when you know what you have to do.

De Villiers is 10/3 second favourite to be his side's top runscorer, behind Smith at 11/4 and in front of Gibbs, who is 4/1. Boucher and Bodi are both 6/1 and while 13/2 is, on the face of it, a tempting price for Kemp, he may bat too far down to make that big an impact.

Bet365 make West Indies 11/8 but for them to win they will need all their big players to be on song, with at least one of them making a big score.

Chris Gayle is the 3/1 favourite, while Shivnarine Chanderpaul is 7/2 and Ramnaresh Sarwan is 9/2. Marlon Samuels and Devon Smith are both 5/1, while Dwayne Bravo could be worth backing at 8/1.

However, it may be worth waiting until after this match for too many individual bets on the run market as it should give you a better indicator of conditions and form.