South Africa will lock horns against India at the SuperSport Park, Centurion on Wednesday in the third T20I of the four-match series. While India won the opening game convincingly by 61 runs after Sanju Samson’s century, the hosts bounced back to win the second game tightly by three wickets.
India’s batting was not up to the mark in the last game as they could only manage 124 runs on the board after they were put into bat. The top-order was dismissed cheaply and from there on, they were always behind the game.
However, the bowlers, especially Varun Chakravarthy, impressed with their performance as they made it it difficult for the Proteas to chase down the target of 125. Chakravarthy returned with his best bowling figures in T20Is – 5-17.
But Suryakumar Yadav’s captaincy was questioned as he gave a solitary over to Axar Patel when the pitch was assisting the spinners.
On the other hand, like India, South Africa’s bowling was up to the mark but they had to struggle a bit to chase down a below-par score. Tristan Stubbs and Gerald Coetzee were able to get their team over the line as they scored 47 and 19 runs respectively.
Match Prediction: India might start as slight favorites against South Africa despite losing the previous game.
India squad: Suryakumar Yadav (captain), Abhishek Sharma, Sanju Samson, Rinku Singh, Tilak Varma, Jitesh Sharma, Hardik Pandya, Axar Patel, Ramandeep Singh, Varun Chakaravarthy, Ravi Bishnoi, Arshdeep Singh, Vijaykumar Vyshak, Avesh Khan, Yash Dayal.
South Africa squad: Aiden Markram (c), Ottneil Baartman, Gerald Coetzee, Donovan Ferreira, Reeza Hendricks, Marco Jansen, Heinrich Klaasen, Patrick Kruger, Keshav Maharaj, David Miller, Mihlali Mpongwana, Nqaba Peter, Ryan Rickelton, Andile Simelane, Lutho Sipamla (3rd and 4th T20Is), Tristan Stubbs.
