🏏India tour of South Africa:3rd T20@SuperSportPark,Centurion Nov 13🏏

India were clear winners at Kingsmead on Friday. South Africa hung tough in a tight game at St George's Park on Sunday to level matters. What might Wednesday in Centurion bring? And Friday at the Wanderers?

For a men's T20I series that was short on context at the outset, the prospect of two more games is suddenly appealing. To avert a drawn rubber, another three would have been better. Indeed, CSA did ask the BCCI to play five matches. India countered that the series, postponed because of the pandemic, originally consisted of three games. So the boards compromised on four.

That means, of course, that whichever team wins on Wednesday can no longer lose the series. And that the best the losers can hope for is to square the series on Friday. It's a strange limbo not often encountered in modern white-ball cricket, but here we are.

India will want to return to the free-flowing batting that made them emphatic victors in Durban, and the likely conditions should aid them in that cause. Runs fly at 9.46 to the over in Centurion T20Is and at 8.66 at the Wanderers - or more frequently than Kingsmead's 8.42 and St George's Park's 7.60. But divide the number of balls bowled by the wickets taken at the four grounds, and you get 17.48 at the Wanderers, 17.05 in Centurion, 16.68 at St George's Park and 16.18 at Kingsmead.

The upshot is that while scoring is easier on the Highveld, so is getting batters out. The differences in the numbers are marginal, but South Africa's success on Sunday was in the balance until the business end of the game. Small things matter in cricket, and more so in the T20 version.

Neutrals will hope for matches closer to Sunday's than Friday's. For that to happen, the South Africans will have to bat better than they did in the first game. And for most of the second. Tristan Stubbs' 41-ball 47 not out, which was central to winning at St George's Park, is their highest score of the series. That said, India's next best effort after Sanju Samson's shimmering 107 off 50 at Kingsmead is Hardik Pandya's unbeaten 39 off 45 at St George's Park.

Varun Chakaravarthy's hauls of 3 for 25 and 5 for 17 - consecutive career-bests - make him the most dangerous bowler in the series, and he will be a handful again despite the different conditions. Gerald Coetzee and Marco Jansen look like the fast bowlers who could cause batters the most problems.

When: November 13 and 15, 2024; 5pm Local Time (8.30pm IST)

Where: SuperSport Park, Centurion and the Wanderers, Johannesburg

What to expect: Faster pitches and the ball flying further than in the first two games. Rain in the past few days has complicated preparations, but both match days should be unaffected by the weather.

Team news:

South Africa:

The finger injury Aiden Markram sustained in trying to take a catch offered by Hardik Pandya at St George's Park on Sunday will not keep him off the field. Lutho Sipamla comes into the squad for the last two games.

Possible XI: Reeza Hendricks, Ryan Rickelton, Aiden Markram (C), Tristan Stubbs, Heinrich Klaasen, David Miller, Marco Jansen, Keshav Maharaj, Gerald Coetzee, Andile Simelane, Lutho Sipamla

India:

Although they lost on Sunday, it's difficult to see how and why India might change their XI.

Possible XI: Abhishek Sharma, Sanju Samson, Suryakumar Yadav (C), Tilak Varma, Axar Patel, Hardik Pandya, Rinku Singh, Arshdeep Singh, Ravi Bishnoi, Avesh Khan, Varun Chakaravarthy,

I feel we were about 15-20 runs short in the last match, which could have been achievable if Hardik had managed to score more in those final 2 overs.

Let’s hope Team India brings their A-game in today's match and secures a solid win! 🇮🇳

Form guide

South Africa WLLWL (last five completed T20Is, most recent first)

India LWWWW

In the spotlight - David Miller and Abhishek Sharma

In this series so far, David Miller has been out twice to Varun - the second off a peach that turned past his outside edge and bowled him for a golden duck - in 13 balls, while scoring 14 runs off them. Miller prides himself on his spin game, which he has transformed over the last three years, and will undoubtedly be working extra-hard on picking Varun's variations and getting on top of him.

He announced himself with an audacious 47-ball 100 against Zimbabwe in only his second appearance, but his eight other T20I innings have brought Abhishek Sharma only 70 runs, with only two of them going past the ten-ball mark. Abhishek's no-holds-barred approach, which is exactly what earned him his international call-up, comes with the in-built risk of early failure, and getting the best out of him will require India's team management to ensure they judge him on processes and not outcomes, helping him become a more rounded player while backing his attacking instincts.

Team news

Lutho has joined South Africa's squad for the third and fourth T20Is, and the fast bowler comes into the series with form behind him. He picked up the Player-of-the-Match award for his four-wicket haul in the final of the CSA T20 Challenge in late October, and followed it up with another match-winning contribution for Lions against Titans, a first-innings four-wicket haul in the CSA 4-Day Series. If South Africa bring him into their XI, either Andile Simelane or the legspinner Nqaba Peter may have to make way.

Quotes

"Everyone on the team hates losing. In the first game, we didn't play at our best, if we can call it as it is. And then the second game, the whole focus was just to try and give us the best chance to win. In the second game, we were a lot more focused on winning those small battles because in T20 two or three overs is actually [significant], there's a lot that can happen. So for us, it was just a focus point in terms of just trying to win those small battles. And I think we won most of the small battles, even though it was a low-scoring game."

South Africa allrounder Marco Jansen

"I've had a really good bowling partner in Jassi bhai. He has helped me enormously in taking a lot of wickets by creating pressure from the other end. So a lot of credit goes to him as well. But the main thing is how well I can adapt to the conditions and the situations of the game, how I can attack the batsman early on and take some early wickets. And even at the death how I can outsmart them and bring the game back into our hands.

India fast bowler Arshdeep Singh on Jasprit Bumrah's role in his growth as an international cricketer

What they said:

"Everyone in the team hates losing." - Marco Jansen on how South Africa turned around their performance at Kingsmead at St George's Park.

"We have played really well. The composure we showed after scoring only 124 for 6 on that [St George's Park] pitch and staying in the game till the 19th over was really commendable from the boys. In the first game, it was a proper all-round show by the whole team. Everyone chipped in with the scores and with the wickets as well." - Arshdeep Singh is happy with the way things are going.

Pitch and conditions

Centurion hosted two incredibly high-scoring T20Is in the space of two days last year. First, South Africa clattered their way to 131 in a rain-shortened, 11-overs-a-side contest, only for West Indies to haul down their target with three balls to spare. Then the hosts exacted a spectacular revenge, with Quinton de Kock's 44-ball 100 helping them haul down 259 in just 18.5 overs and set a new record for the highest T20I chase. Expect plenty of runs, then, though the steep bounce at the venue could also bring fast bowlers into play if there's a little bit of help from the surface. A clear and pleasant day is expected.

Stats and trivia

Of the six South African grounds that have hosted at least three T20Is since the start of the decade, Centurion has been the highest-scoring, with batting teams going at 10.90 per over and averaging 33.25 runs per wicket.

Miller (81) has the most catches by a non-wicketkeeper in all T20Is.

Varun already has eight wickets in this series, and has a great chance, with two matches remaining, of going past the Indian record of most wickets in a bilateral T20I series of nine, held jointly by R Ashwin and Bishnoi.

Since his debut in July 2022, no Full Member player has taken more wickets than Arshdeep's 89 in T20Is. Arshdeep is well on course to take over as India's highest wicket-taker in the format, needing just eight more to go past Chahal's tally of 96.

Today's Match Prediction: Team bowling first to win the match

Scenario 1

India win the toss and opt to bowl first.
Powerplay: 60-70
South Africa: 165-175
India win the match.

Scenario 2

South Africa win the toss and opt to bowl first.
Powerplay: 60-70
India: 175-185
South Africa win the match