South Africa tipped for Twenty20 joy

Shane Bond is fit & bowling fast again - he will be a real danger to the South Africans © Getty Images

In what is effectively an appetiser to the main course of five one-day internationals, which start on Sunday, South Africa and New Zealand will contest a Twenty20 match at the Wanderers on Friday. The result is unlikely to have much bearing on the one-day series, but that hasn't stopped bet365 producing plenty of prices on the match.

Led by Stephen Fleming but without Chris Cairns, who has been dropped, New Zealand are 11-10 outsiders to win the slug-fest, while South Africa, with home advantage and on paper at least, a stronger team, are 4-6 favourites.

The absence of Cairns is a problem for New Zealand, but they do have Shane Bond back fit and the paceman will be raring to have a go at the South Africa line-up, several of whom looked woefully out of form in the Super Series. Jacques Kallis, one of the real disappointment of the series, is still a class batsman though, and it's no surprise to see him 7/2 (4.50) joint favourite with his captain Graeme Smith to be his side's top scorer.

Herschelle Gibbs, who can plunder any attack on his day, is 5/1 (6.00) while H Boeta Dippenaar and AB De Villiers are 6/1 (7.00) shots and the highly rated Justin Kemp is 7/1 (8.00). Ashwell Prince and Albie Morkel are 8/1 (9.00) while Mark Boucher, a fine striker of the ball is a 12/1 (13.00) chance and Shaun Pollock is 25/1 (26.00). Prince has the highest one-day average of the lot, at a massive 58.66, but that's assisted by nine not outs. Of the rest, Kallis, with 44.27, Dippenaar, with 43.98 and Smith, with 40.13 are the most successful, and though Twenty20 is a different test again to one-day internationals, it's not without importance.

For New Zealand, the excellent Fleming is the 7/2 (4.50) favourite, while Nathan Astle is 4/1 (5.00) and Lou Vincent and Scott Styris are both 5/1 (6.00). Hamish Marshall is 11/2, while of the rest, Jacob Oram is 17/2 (9.50) and Daniel Vettori, who is no mug with the bat, is 18/1 (19.00). Looking at the one-day averages, Nathan Astle comes out on top at 35.29, just ahead of Hamish Marshall, with 34.12 and Fleming, who has 32.41.

As with all these novelty matches, I wouldn't advise getting involved too heavily as it just doesn't mean enough to the players for them all to be playing flat out, with five more important games, and then a much more important Test series just round the corner.