Argus News - India Break Toss Jinx, Bowls First in Vizag ODI; Tilak Replaces Sundar in Playing XI

Visakhapatnam, Dec 6: After 20 failed attempts, India finally won the toss and elected to bowl first against South Africa in the third ODI at the ACA–VDCA Cricket Stadium.

India have made one change as Washington Sundar goes out and Tilak Varma comes in. Whereas, for South Africa Ryan Rickelton and Ottniel Baartman come in after Nandre Burger and Tony de Zorzi were ruled out of the third ODI.

Cricket South Africa in a statement on Saturday said, "Burger experienced right hamstring discomfort while bowling during the second ODI on Wednesday, and de Zorzi experienced right hamstring area pain while batting and was unable to continue batting during the run chase. Both players underwent scans on Friday, which confirmed the extent of their respective injuries."

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India captain KL Rahul said, "Yeah, I think you should do more tosses. We are looking to bowl first. A little bit, we trained here last night. There was dew but it didn't come as soon as it did at Ranchi or Raipur. I don't think it is going to play as much of a role as it did in the previous games. But yeah, we wanted to chase a total and see how we can bowl first. Yeah, looks like a good wicket. No, honestly. Not at all, from me and the leadership group, we were happy with how we played the last game. I know from outside 360 getting chased down looks like a lot has gone wrong. But you have to consider the conditions and there were a lot of positives to take, the chat is to do the same things and be consistent. We need to be sharpen in the field."

South Africa captain Temba Bavuma said, "Yeah, we would’ve bowled first as well. The wicket doesn’t look the easiest, so the plan is simple - start well upfront, assess conditions early, and set things up for the middle order. If we can put a competitive score on the board, we back ourselves to defend it.

"It’s been a really entertaining series, from the intensity of red-ball cricket to the excitement of the white-ball format. The crowd’s been fantastic in every game, and we definitely want to put in a performance worthy of that support. Hopefully, today turns out to be another thriller.

"We’ve got two changes today - Ryan Rickelton and Ottniel Baartman come into the XI. Unfortunately, Nandre Burger and Tony de Zorzi picked up injuries in the last ODI, so they’ll be out for a couple of weeks. But it’s another opportunity for the guys coming in, and we back them to step up."

Playing XIs:

• South Africa: Ryan Rickelton, Quinton de Kock (wk), Temba Bavuma, Matthew Breetzke, Aiden Markram (c), Dewald Brevis, Corbin Bosch, Marco Jansen, Keshav Maharaj, Lungi Ngidi, Ottneil Baartman.
• India: Yashasvi Jaiswal, Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, Ruturaj Gaikwad, Tilak Varma, KL Rahul (c), Ravindra Jadeja, Harshit Rana, Kuldeep Yadav, Arshdeep Singh, Prasidh Krishna.

(IANS)