India v South Africa, 4th ODI, Chennai: Preview

The loss at Rajkot in the closing staged after having dominated so much of the match was a soul crushing one for the Indians. India must now win tomorrow’s match at Chennai to keep the series alive.

It is clear that they lack fire power in the slog overs with Suresh Raina woefully out of form and with no Ravindra Jadeja in the team. The Indian players look to be in massive pressure in the closing stages and seem to have no idea how to get the big hits going and the runs flowing.

The Indian players are under a lot of pressure to catch up and the time is now. They must deliver in Chennai, as not doing so would leave a lot of fans upset. It’s one thing for the Indian cricket team to lose to South Africa in South Africa, but to lose to them in India, on home soil, is hard to take.

They must compete over all 100 overs of the match, which they have been unable to do so far in this series. Even neutrals would want India to win this match so that a grand finale can be set up in the final game of the series to be played on Sunday in Mumbai at the Wankhade Stadium.

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The one Indian player who will be under tremendous pressure to perform in Suresh Raina. He has to step up after having contrinuted virtually nothing in the whole series. He seems to be in the middle of a career meltdown and if he doesn’t get back to form pretty quickly, an extended period out of the Indian team will be the only likely result.

For South Africa, the otherwise reliable Hashim Amla hasn’t been in the best of form. He has been outscored easily by his much younger opening partner, Quinton De Kock. Amla has given small starts to the South Africans without actually converting those into anything major.

India are struggling with their bowling with Umesh Yadav being left out and a distinctly average medium pacer, S Aravind given his spot in the side. India are expected to play three spinners in the line-up.

For South Africa, allrounder JP Duminy, who is such an important member of the side is out with a hand injury. He is likely to be replaced by Chris Morris, who is a very good bowler in limited overs cricket and who can bat a bit as well. The South African bowling looks as good as ever with 20 year old Kagiso Rabada being the star of the show so far.

Team news

India:  1 Rohit Sharma, 2 Shikhar Dhawan, 3 Ajinkya Rahane 4 Virat Kohli, 5 MS Dhoni (capt & wk), 6 Suresh Raina, 7 Axar Patel, 8 Harbhajan Singh, 9 Amit Mishra, 10 Bhuvneshwar Kumar, 11 S Aravind

South Africa:  1 Quinton de Kock (wk), 2 Hashim Amla, 3 Faf du Plessis, 4 AB de Villiers (capt), 5 Farhaan Behardien, 6 David Miller, 7 Chris Morris, 8 Dale Steyn, 9 Morne Morkel/Kyle Abbott, 10 Kagiso Rabada, 11 Imran Tahir

Match Conditions

The Chennai track has always been known to be a slow and low one that offers a plenty of turn. But interestingly, this time around the Chennai pitch has an extra bounce about it, if rumors are to be believed. The Chennai heat is always oppressive and humidity will be a big factor. The South Africans should struggle in these conditions as they are not used to this sort of heat and humidity.

Watch India play South Africa in the crucial 4th ODI at Chennai on Thursday, 1:30 PM – live on Star Sports!

Raghav Hegde
Raghav Hegdehttps://www.indiabet.org/blog
Raghav Hegde is a freelance SAP consultant from the city that gave India Rahul Dravid, Bangalore. Needless to add, he is a big fan of Dravid and among the current lot, admires Mitchell Johnson, Dale Steyn and AB de Villiers the most. His greatest wish as an Indian cricket fan is for his country to produce a fast bowler like Johnson or Steyn.

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