IND vs SA: India Finally Break Toss Curse, Opt To Bowl Against South Africa In ODI Series Decider
India National Cricket Team vs South Africa National Cricket Team Scorecard: Captain KL Rahul switched to his left hand to flip the coin, and the unorthodox approach brought back India’s luck as Men in Blue finally broke their 21-match ODI toss losing streak, opting to bowl first against South Africa in the three-match ODI series decider at the ACA-VDCA Cricket Stadium in Visakhapatnam on Saturday.
With an aim to boost their middle order and provide an extra bowling option, India made a strategic change to their lineup for the series decider, replacing Washington Sundar with Tilak Varma.
South Africa, hit by injuries to key players, Nandre Burger and Tony de Zorzi, have brought in Ryan Rickelton and Ottneil Baartman in their place.
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Burger and de Zorzi have been ruled out for a couple of weeks. Burger experienced right hamstring distress during the previous game, while de Zorzi encountered pain in the right hamstring while batting.
Speaking at the time of toss, KL Rahul said, “We’ll bowl. We trained here last night and the feedback from the coaches was that there was dew, but it didn’t come in as early as Ranchi and Raipur. We were obviously planning to bowl second, keeping our track record in mind. I don’t think it’s going to play such a big part as Raipur and Ranchi. But we just want to change the total and see how we can bowl first. Yeah, it looks like a good wicket. For and from the leadership group, we’re really happy with the way we played in the last two games. I know from the outside that 360 being chased down looks like a lot is going wrong. But considering the conditions and considering the way our teams are lined up, I think we did really well. There are a lot of positives to take, and I’m really happy with the way we bowled and batted. The chat obviously has been to keep doing the same thing and stay consistent with what we’re doing and stay consistent with that process. We know that the results will follow. There aren’t many things that we’re looking to change. Just trying to sharpen a couple of things in the field, and the results will go our way. One change. Washington Sundar misses out, and Tilak Varma comes in.”
South Africa captain Temba Bavuma said, “We would have bowled first. A good start upfront will set it up for the middle order, we’ll try and put a competitive score on the board and then hopefully defend it. It’s been entertaining, hasn’t it? From the red bull stuff now to the white ball stuff. The crowd has come out and I’m sure they’ll be rooting for the Indian side. Today is another important one and like always, we’ll do our best to make sure we’re on the right side of the result. We’ve got two changes. Rickelton and Baartman come in. Both of them (Burger and de Zorzi) sustained injuries in the last ODI, I think they’ll be out for a couple of weeks. It’ll give another opportunity for Baartman and Rickelton to deliver.”
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India vs South Africa Playing XIs
South Africa (Playing XI): Ryan Rickelton, Quinton de Kock(w), Temba Bavuma(c), Matthew Breetzke, Aiden Markram, Dewald Brevis, Marco Jansen, Corbin Bosch, Keshav Maharaj, Lungi Ngidi, Ottneil Baartman.
India (Playing XI): Rohit Sharma, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Virat Kohli, Ruturaj Gaikwad, Tilak Varma, KL Rahul(w/c), Ravindra Jadeja, Harshit Rana, Kuldeep Yadav, Arshdeep Singh, Prasidh Krishna.
