South Africa pick Sipamla and field; Ramandeep debuts for India

South Africa won the toss and chose to bowl vs India

Aiden Markam won a third successive toss and decided to chase for the third successive time with the series locked at 1-1. Suryakumar Yadav was happy with the decision and would have batted first anyway on a Centurion pitch that looked loaded with runs.

Both teams made one change to their XI from the coastal venues. South Africa opted for an extra seamer in Lutho Sipamla, who plays his domestic cricket down the road in Johannesburg. Sipamla was among the top bowlers in the recently completed CSA domestic T20, and is a proven performer on the Highveld. He replaced legspinner Nqaba Peter, which leaves South Africa with only one specialist spinner in Keshav Maharaj although Markram can roll his arm over as well.

India boosted their batting and handed a debut to Ramandeep Singh, who boasted a strike rate of 201.61, for the Kolkata Knight Riders last IPL season. Ramandeep replaced Avesh Khan and provided a seam-bowling, all-round option. India stuck to a three-specialist-spinner combination in Varun Chakravarthy, Ravi Bishnoi and Axar Patel with Arshdeep Singh and Hardik Pandya making up the seam attack.

The weather at SuperSport Park was set fair and rain is only forecast for much later in the evening.

South Africa: 1 Ryan Rickelton (wk), 2 Reeza Hendricks, 3 Aiden Markram (capt), 4 Tristan Stubbs, 5 Heinrich Klaasen, 6 David Miller, 7 Marco Jansen, 8 Andile Simelane, 9 Gerald Coetzee, 10 Keshav Maharaj, 11 Lutho Sipamla

India: 1 Sanju Samson (wk), 2 Abhishek Sharma, 3 Suryakumar Yadav (capt), 4 Tilak Varma, 5 Hardik Pandya, 6 Rinku Singh, 7 Ramandeep Singh, 8 Axar Patel, 9 Arshdeep Singh, 10 Ravi Bishnoi, 11 Varun Chakravarthy

Firdose Moonda is ESPNcricinfo’s correspondent for South Africa and women’s cricket

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