South Africa captain Graeme Smith opted to set target in the must-win against India
South Africa captain Graeme Smith won the toss and opted to set the target in the must-win fourth One-Day International against India in Port Elizabeth.
The toss can play a key role in the result of the match as there is no grass on the wicket and it is anticipated that the track would tend to slow down as the day progresses.
The Proteas have made two changes in their squad that played in the Cape Town thriller, which the hosts lost by 2 wickets after being in a commanding position by taking India five down within 100. As anticipated,
rusty Wayne Parnell has been left out. Left-arm spinner Robin Peterson was called in as 21-year-old’s replacement, which means that the Pakistan-born leg-spinner Imran Tahir has to wait till Sunday for his first South Africa cap. The other change that the
hosts have made is that Morne van Wyk has been called in for Colin Ingram.
The tourists, on the other hand, have made only one change to their squad by calling in Parthiv Patel at the cost of struggling Murali Vijay.
Port Elizabeth has never been a friendly venue for the Indians as they have lost all of their four matches played there so far.
India, after facing a 135-run drubbing in the series opener at Durban, made a strong comeback by winning the next two games and are now leading the series by 2-1. The hosts must be looking forward to seal
the series by winning today’s game while Smith’s side would be eager to keep their prospects alive in the series. If India wins today’s match, it would be their first-ever series win against South Africa in the latter’s backyard.
Teams:
South Africa: 1 Graeme Smith (captain), 2 Hashim Amla, 3 Morne van Wyk, 4 AB de Villiers (wk), 5 JP Duminy, 6 Faf du Plessis, 7 Robin Peterson, 8 Johan Botha, 9 Dale Steyn , 10 Morne Morkel,
11 Lonwabo Tsotsobe
India : 1 Parthiv Patel, 2 Rohit Sharma, 3 Virat Kohli, 4 Yuvraj Singh, 5 Suresh Raina, 6 MS Dhoni (captain and wicketkeeper), 7 Yusuf Pathan, 8 Harbhajan Singh, 9 Ashish Nehra, 10 Munaf
Patel, 11 Zaheer Khan
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