South Africa vs India, 3rd T20I – Match Predictions

Rain and some insane hitting by Heinrich Klaasen helped South Africa level the T20I series the other night in Centurion which now makes the third game of the series a decider and a much anticipated contest. While India have the opportunity to win it and completely own the limited-over leg of the tour, South Africa will look to spoil their party and restore some pride after the demolition they suffered in the ODIs.

Newlands will host the last game of this tour and India would have happy recent memories of that venue having registered a huge victory in their previous outing there. The men in blue will be in a really positive frame of mind walking out there again and will hope to put on another dominating show to finish a highly successful tour on a successful note.

Probable nature of the pitch

Newlands, in the ODI series, had produced a flat surface with a little bit of stickiness giving the slower bowlers a touch of grip. It may be a similar deck again. If nicely rolled in, it might not grip as much, but there won’t be that much pace in the wicket and it will be hard work for the fast bowlers from both sides unless they use some cutters and change ups. The spinners, however, will surely be into play.

With the conditions good for batting and the possibility of them remaining unchanged throughout the two innings means it will be better to bowl first.

Playing Combination

South Africa

The bowlers set up the game for South Africa in Centurion. Yes towards the end, they struggled a bit with the wet ball, but the tone they set in the first half of the innings chipping way with regular wickets ensured India couldn’t post a huge total on the board.

189 was not a small target, but considering the fact that the conditions were wet, it was very chaseable.

The Proteas will like to play an unchanged XI in the decider. Jon Jon Smuts has not quite come off at the top of the order yet, but he is someone who has a reputation in white ball cricket in the domestic circuit of South Africa and the management will back him to explode in the crunch game.

Also David Miller, who has been slightly out of sorts in the last two games, will be keen to make a contribution as he is one of the experienced men in this new look South African outfit and the middle order depends a lot on him.

Predicted XI: Jon-Jon Smuts, Reeza Hendricks, JP Duminy (C), David Miller, Heinrich Klaasen (WK), Farhaan Behardien, Chris Morris, Andile Phehlukwayo, Junior Dala, Tabraiz Shamsi, Dane Paterson

India

India played the last game without two of their key bowlers who were both out injured. However now that the series is on the line, the think tank will be pretty tempted to get them in provided they feel good about their body and have recovered from their niggles. If they are back, it makes a massive difference for India with the ball.

The visitors have been using Suresh Raina at no. 3 entrusting him with the job of providing some impetus to the innings and to be fair to him, he has played that role of the enforcer pretty well. So he is likely to be continued with at that position.

There were a few talks about promoting Hardik Pandya up the order ahead of the last game, but the way Manish Pandey and MS Dhoni batted in the death overs at the SuperSport Park, Virat Kohli will not want to tinker with their batting positions either.

Predicted XI: Shikhar Dhawan, Rohit Sharma, Suresh Raina, Virat Kohli (C), MS Dhoni (wk), Manish Pandey, Hardik Pandya, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Kuldeep Yadav, Jasprit Bumrah, Yuzvendra Chahal

Probable Top Performers

David Miller (South Africa) | Bhuvneshwar Kumar (India)

Here’s what CricTracker predicts for the game

Head to Head

Total games played – 12| South Africa won – 5| India won – 7| N/R – 0

Timing of the match: 09:30 pm IST, 04:00 pm GMT, 06:00 pm Local Time

Broadcast Details

TV – Sony Ten 1 (English Commentary), Sony Ten 3 (Hindi Commentary)

Live streaming – SonyLIV

The prediction is for India to win this match and win the series 2-1.