South Africa won the toss and chose to bowl first In the third One-Day International (ODI) against India in Paarl, on Thursday.
South Africa went with an unchanged side that won the second ODI.
Proteas skipper Aiden Markram said: “It looks a good wicket and we can’t see it changing too much over the course of 100 overs. We did nicely bowling first the other day, and hopefully we can replicate that.
“Chasing is something we’d like to keep challenging ourselves with. Hopefully we can bowl well and restrict them to a chase-able total.”
De Zorzi hoping to keep going
South Africa’s Tony de Zorzi will be hoping for another good performance after notching up his maiden ODI century in the previous game in Gqeberha, as the hosts romped to an eight wicket triumph.
With temperatures set to peak around 35 degrees in Paarl, batting first may have just been an expected choice for the captains, but despite that Markram still opted to field first.
India captain KL Rahul said: “We need to play well and put runs on the board. We need to get a good start and make it count. It’s another opportunity for everyone, and it’s a good wicket not like the last couple.”
For India, top order batsman Rajat Patidar makes his ODI debut for the visitors in place of the injured Ruturaj Gaikwad, while Washington Sundar comes in for Kuldeep Yadav
The three-match series is locked at 1-1 heading to the decider in the Cape, after two one-sided results in favour of each team over the last week.
Teams:
South Africa: 1 Reeza Hendricks, 2 Tony de Zorzi, 3 Rassie van der Dussen, 4 Aiden Markram (capt.), 5 Heinrich Klaasen (wk), 6 David Miller, 7 Andile Phehlukwayo, 8 Wiaan Mulder, 9 Nandre Burger, 10 Keshav Maharaj, 11 Lizaad Williams
India: 1 KL Rahul, 2 Rajat Patidar, 3 B Sai Sudharsan, 4 Sanju Samson, 5 Tilak Varma, 6 Rinku Singh, 7 Washington Sundar, 8 Axar Patel, 9 Arshdeep Singh, 10 Avesh Khan, 11 Mukesh Kumar