With India having won the first two matches comfortably by chasing down targets, South African captain Aiden Markram admitted: “We understand India do chase well but we think there might be a bit of assistance for the bowlers up front and then it should be a very good wicket.”
Indian captain Virat Kohli said: “We wanted to bat first, to change things up a bit. It looks a good batting track. We thought it might do more under lights with two new balls.”
Kohli said India wanted to post a good total and then challenge an inexperienced South African batting line-up to chase a target.
India were unchanged for the third successive match.
South Africa made three changes.
Markram was due to open the batting, as he does in Test matches and domestic one-day games, following a wrist injury which ruled Quinton de Kock out of the rest of the series, as well as three Twenty20 internationals which follow the one-day matches.
Heinrich Klaasen, 26, will make his international debut, taking over the wicketkeeping gloves from De Kock and batting in a middle order severely weakened by injuries to AB de Villiers and regular captain Faf du Plessis.
Klaasen toured New Zealand last year as back-up wicketkeeper but did not play in a game. He is a capable batsman who scored 522 runs at an average of 52.20 in South Africa?s recently completed domestic one-day competition.
Fast bowler Lungi Ngidi, who has already played in Tests and Twenty20 internationals, was making his one-day international debut in place of Morne Morkel, while all-rounder Andile Phehlukwayo replaced wrist spinner Tabraiz Shamsi.
Teams:
South Africa: Aiden Markram (captain), Hashim Amla, JP Duminy, Heinrich Klaasen (wkt), David Miller, Khaya Zondo, Chris Morris, Andile Phehlukwayo, Kagiso Rabada, Imran Tahir, Lungi Ngidi.
India: Virat Kohli (captain), Rohit Sharma, Shikhar Dhawan, Ajinkya Rahane, MS Dhoni (wkt), Kedar Jadhav, Hardik Pandya, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Kuldeep Yadav, Jasprit Bumrah, Yuzvendra Chahal.
Umpires: Ian Gould (ENG), Adrian Holdstock (RSA)
TV umpire: Aleem Dar (PAK)
Match referee: Andy Pycroft (ZIM)
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