India might be going up in opposition to South Africa within the third and last ODI on Thursday, on the Boland Park in Paarl. After dealing with a defeat within the first ODI, the Proteas convincingly gained the second ODI and have managed to maintain the sequence alive. Tony de Zorzi‘s unbeaten 122-ball 119 guided his facet house. Nevertheless, the KL Rahul-led facet will purpose for a greater outing within the third match, with the intention to declare the three-match sequence. Younger opener Sai Sudarshan, who made his worldwide within the first ODI, is in elegant kind as he smashed half-centuries in each the matches.

With an identical storyline of faltering opening mixture working by way of the primary two matches, India’s hopes of registering their second ODI sequence triumph in South Africa will revolve round a sturdy begin from the openers

India’s lone ODI sequence win within the Rainbow nation got here in 2018, and for an encore they require a strong starting from Ruturaj Gaikwad and B Sai Sudharsan as a pair.

Sai Sudharsan has been spectacular in his two outings within the sequence to this point, notching up 55 and 62. However Gaikwad couldn’t help him from the opposite finish. The proper-hander fell for 5 and 4 as India’s first-wicket alliance ended at 23 and 4 at Johannesburg and Port Elizabeth.

In distinction, South African openers Tony de Zorzi, who cracked his maiden century, and Reeza Hendricks milked 130 runs to kill the chase.

Equally, Tilak Varma, who confirmed some early promise in his profession, appeared to have tapered off a bit within the final couple of months.

In the meantime, Arshdeep Singh and Avesh Khan did the right demolition job within the first match, and the previous continued to be thrifty within the second match as nicely. So, it’s crucial for Mukesh to seek out his rhythm with the brand new ball and choose up a wicket or two upfront to maintain South Africa on the backfoot.

The workforce administration may also consider giving a match to veteran leg-spinner Yuzvendra Chahal, whose tour to SA will finish on the morrow.

India’s Predicted XI: Ruturaj Gaikwad, Sai Sudharsan, Tilak Varma, KL Rahul (C), Sanju Samson, Rinku Singh, Axar Patel, Kuldeep Yadav, Arshdeep Singh, Avesh Khan/Yuzvendra Chahal, Mukesh Kumar

(With PTI Inputs)