India value to wrap up series

Having broken their duck in South Africa by winning a Test there for the first time, India will be going for the jugular in the second Test, which starts in Durban on Boxing Day, knowing victory will give them an unassailable 2-0 lead in the three-match series.

The momentum they have built up from the first Test, where they dominated from the start, will be hard for South Africa to stop but the bookies clearly think the home side can bounce back as they make them 8/11 (1.72) favourites to win.

India are 7/2 (4.50) to make it back-to-back wins, while the draw is a 23/10 (3.30) chance.

Looking at the history of matches at Kingsmead in Durban, I am not exactly sure where bet365's confidence comes from as South Africa have won just 11 of the 33 Tests there, with nine defeats and 13 draws.

True, they have only lost two of the last 10 - to Pakistan and Australia - but on paper they are no better than India and in Zaheer Khan and Sressanth, the tourists appear to have a couple of promising quick bowlers to complement their always impressive spinners.

Their batting is still very strong and if they can get the openers to fire, they will be mightily hard to beat.

Who will hit top form?
As always, Sachin Tendulkar is favourite to be top India batsman in the first innings, but for once he is not alone as captain Rahul Dravid is alongside him at 100/30 (4.33). Sachin is due a big innings, which spells trouble for South Africa.

Virender Sehwag is 9/2 (5.50) while VVS Laxman and Sourav Ganguly are 5/1 (6.00) and Gautam Gambhir and Wasim Jaffer are both 13/2 (7.50).

For South Africa, Jacques Kallis is favourite at 3/1 (4.00) while the out-of-form Herschelle Gibbs and Graeme Smith are both 9/2. AB de Villiers is 5/1, Ashwell Prince is 11/2 and Hashim Amla is 13/2.

This is likely to be a tight contest, cagily fought by both teams, but India have the momentum and probably the better team and could well take another victory.