SA vs IND: 3rd T20I Preview – South Africa, India clash for a crucial series lead

The four-match series between India and South Africa is intriguingly poised at 1-1 as the action shifts to SuperSport Park in Centurion for the third T20I on Wednesday, November 13.

India won the first match convincingly by 61 runs at Kingsmead, Durban after scoring 202/8 on the back of Sanju Samson’s scintillating century. South Africa were bowled out for 141 as Varun Chakaravarthy and Ravi Bishnoi were too hot to handle through the middle overs.

After the devasting defeat in the first T20I, the Proteas bounced back in the second at St George’s Park, Gqeberha. The South African bowlers bowled with a lot of discipline and restricted India to 124/6. In reply, the hosts were in a spot of bother after Chakaravarthy’s stunning five-for but Tristan Stubbs and Gerald Coetzee bailed them out as South Africa won the match by three wickets with an over to spare.

South Africa has looked all at sea against Chakaravarthy as the mystery spinner has accounted for eight wickets from two matches at an average of 5.25. Meanwhile, Coetzee has bowled with a lot of heart for the Proteas and bagged four wickets at 15.50 from two games. Ryan Rickelton has looked good at the top of the order but he needs to convert his starts into big scores. Heinrich Klaasen and David Miller have struggled to pick Chakaravarthy and this would be a huge cause of concern for the Rainbow Nation.

Abhishek Sharma’s form has dipped considerably after he scored a century in just his second T20I appearance against Zimbabwe in July. He will look to make an impact on Wednesday. Sanju Samson has scored a century and registered a duck so far in this series. India will want their wicketkeeper-batter to fire at the top of the order.

Pitch Report:

SuperSport Park has hosted 14 T20Is so far. It has proven to be a great venue for batters as the average first innings score is 193. The captain who wins the toss would want to bat second and have a target in front of them. The ball might swing around for the first couple of overs and the batters will have to be wary. Once they get through that phase, a lot of runs could be there for the taking.

Probable XIs:

South Africa: Ryan Rickelton, Reeza Hendricks, Aiden Markram (c), Tristan Stubbs, Heinrich Klaasen (wk), David Miller, Andile Simelane, Marco Jansen, Gerald Coetzee, Keshav Maharaj, Nqabayomzi Peter

India: Sanju Samson (wk), Abhishek Sharma, Suryakumar Yadav (c), Tilak Varma, Hardik Pandya, Rinku Singh, Axar Patel, Arshdeep Singh, Avesh Khan, Ravi Bishnoi, Varun Chakaravarthy