India hope to restore parity against formidable South Africa in the T20I series decider

With the series finale all locked and loaded, Team India will be taking the yard with hopes of salvaging the spoils while South Africa would certainly be fascinated by the prospect of running roughshod over the Men in Blue as the caravan arrives in Wanderers.

India’s top-order failed to get into their customary gears in the last match as Rinku Singh, Tilak Varma and Suryakumar Yadav provided the all-important late save while South Africa’s top-order set the perfect note for the hosts to run away with the fixture.

The young guns did put up a resounding war in the blue threads but it was Rinku Singh who hammered a full-blown assault chronicling his best score in international cricket. For the hosts, their bowlers got off to a brilliant start but were soon to lose track of the bigger picture as the Indian middle-order took over.

The Indian bowling though wasn’t exactly on the same page as the Indian batters as they struggled to contain the hosts after a fiery start, posting somewhat of a similar sloppy display like their counterparts. As the party arrives in Wanderers, it is going to be a battle to remember as India eye shared spoils while South Africa seek a 2-0 triumph.

Venue Watch:

Wanderers has been the epicenter of countless swashbuckling battles while the list will have another one added to it as the Men in Blue lock horns with the Proteas. A total of 26 T20I matches have been played here out of which 13 have been won batting first while 13 have been won chasing. Going by the numbers, this is a fairly decent batting surface as the average score batting first is a staggering 171 while it drops down to 145 while chasing.

Head to Head:

Matches played: 25

India – 13

South Africa - 11

Match Details:

Match – South Africa vs India

Venue: Wanderers Stadium, Johannesburg

Date: 14th December, 2023

Time: 8:30 PM

Squads:

India: Yashasvi Jaiswal, Shubman Gill, Ruturaj Gaikwad, Tilak Varma, Suryakumar Yadav (C), Rinku Singh, Shreyas Iyer, Ishan Kishan (wk), Jitesh Sharma (wk), Ravindra Jadeja (VC), Washington Sundar, Ravi Bishnoi, Kuldeep Yadav, Arshdeep Singh, Mohd. Siraj, Mukesh Kumar, Deepak Chahar

South Africa:  Aiden Markram (c), Ottniel Baartman, Matthew Breetzke, Nandre Burger, Gerald Coetzee (1st and 2ndT20Is), Donovan Ferreira, Reeza Hendricks, Marco Jansen (1st and 2nd T20Is), Heinrich Klaasen, Keshav Maharaj, David Miller, Lungi Ngidi (1st and 2nd T20Is), Andile Phehlukwayo, Tabraiz Shamsi, Tristan Stubbs, Lizaad Williams