India have put the Proteas in to bat at the Oval, as the sides look to book their spot in their Champions Trophy semi-final.
The pressure match has come a game early for South Africa and India. After respective defeats to Pakistan and Sri Lanka, the sides have found themselves in a situation they wouldn’t have expected: the loser of this match gets knocked out. It’s a quarter-final, and the team who can keep their composure and stick to their game plan will emerge as winners.
The good news for the Proteas is that their captain, AB de Villiers, is fit. The only change, as expected, is Andile Phehlukwayo coming in for Wayne Parnell. The Indians haven’t faced Phehlukwayo before, and will look to mix up his pace on a wicket that’s expected to be a bit two-paced in the first innings.
India have brought in Ravichandran Ashwin for Umesh Yadav. He’ll add some experience and variation to an attack that was pulled apart by the Sri Lankans last week.
The all-important toss has been won by India, who will look to do what has been more successful than not in this tournament so far: chase down a target. There’s a slight bit of cloud cover, with an outside chance of light drizzle later on, but if yesterday is anything to go by, then it should be a belter of a day.
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SOUTH AFRICA: Quinton de Kock (wk), Hashim Amla, Faf du Plessis, AB de Villiers (c), David Miller, JP Duminy, Chris Morris, Andile Phehlukwayo, Kagiso Rabada, Morne Morkel, Imran Tahir
INDIA: Shikhar Dhawan, Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli (c), Yuvraj Singh, MS Dhoni (wk), Kedar Jadhav, Hardik Pandya, Ravindra Jadeja, Ravichandran Ashwin, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Jasprit Bumrah
Photo: Christopher Lee/Getty Images
