5 talking points ahead of 3rd South Africa vs India Twenty20 in Cape Town
Cape Town: India's long tour of South Africa will come to end when the they take on the hosts in the decisive third T20I at Newlands here on Saturday.
Having won the five-match ODI series already, the Virat Kohli-led side will aim to return home with two trophies. India won the first game by 28 runs in Johannesburg, but tasted six-wicket defeat in the second after extraordinary innings from Henrich Klaasen and JP Duminy.
The three-match T20I series is currently tied at 1-1 and here are some of the talking points ahead of India’s final game of the South Africa tour.
1) Virat Kohli moves closer to 2000-run mark
Coming to the decider game, Kohli will be again the player to watch, as the Indian skipper is just 17 runs away from becoming the first Indian to have 2000 runs in T20I format.
If he achieves the milestone, the Indian will be only third overall after New Zealand opener Martin Guptill (2188 runs) and his former teammate Brendon McCullum (2140 runs).
2) South Africa have lost five T20Is at Newlands
This will be their first such outing, while South Africa have a less than impressive record here. They have played 8 T20Is, and lost 5 of them here.
The two wins came in the 2007 World T20 and as such the hosts have only ever won a singular bilateral T20I game (against England in 2016) at Cape Town. It doesn’t necessarily give the visitors an advantage.
3) India’s first T20I at Newlands
It will be a T20I debut for the India at Newlands as the tourists have never played the shortest format cricket here.
4) The pitch scene
The Newlands pitch had played slow during the ODI series, and citing the example of SuperSport Park, there is every reason to expect another wicket on the slower side, if= not dual-paced altogether.
5) Will weather play spoilsport?
Though the threat of rain loomed large in the second T20, conditions in Cape Town for the final match of India’s 2018 tour of South Africa seem fine.
Showers could be expected early morning from 10-11 am at the venue, but with the match starting at 6 pm, conditions are expected to be sunny.
However, post 7 pm, the weather forecast at Cape Town is likely to be cloudy.
Match-timings:
The match is scheduled to start at 9:30 p.m. IST.
Where to watch the match live?
Live telecast: The match can be seen live on Sony Ten 1 (English commentary) and Sony Ten 3 (Hindi commentary).
Live streaming: It can also be streamed live on Sony LIV, the digital platform on the internet.
Squads:
South Africa: Reeza Hendricks, Jon-Jon Smuts, JP Duminy (captain), David Miller, Farhaan Behardien, Heinrich Klaasen (wicketkeeper), Christiaan Jonker, Chris Morris, Andile Phehlukwayo, Junior Dala, Dane Paterson, Aaron Phangiso.
India: Rohit Sharma, Shikhar Dhawan, Virat Kohli (captain), Manish Pandey, Dinesh Karthik, Suresh Raina, MS Dhoni (wicketkeeper), Hardik Pandya, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Jasprit Bumrah, Kuldeep Yadav, Yuzvendra Chahal.
