India have finally broken their streak of 20 straight toss defeats, winning the toss in the third ODI against South Africa in Visakhapatnam and opting to bowl first in the series decider.
Both sides enter the final ODI with contrasting momentum. India carry confidence from strong batting performances across the first two matches, while South Africa are forced into changes due to injuries to Nandre Burger and Tony de Zorzi.
Teams:
South Africa (Playing XI): Ryan Rickelton, Quinton de Kock (wk), Temba Bavuma (c), Matthew Breetzke, Aiden Markram, Dewald Brevis, Marco Jansen, Corbin Bosch, Keshav Maharaj, Lungi Ngidi, Ottneil Baartman
India (Playing XI): Rohit Sharma, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Virat Kohli, Ruturaj Gaikwad, Tilak Varma, KL Rahul (w/c), Ravindra Jadeja, Harshit Rana, Kuldeep Yadav, Arshdeep Singh, Prasidh Krishna
What the captains said:
Temba Bavuma: “We would have bowled first. A good start upfront will set it up for the middle order. It’s been entertaining. Hope today’s another thrilling one. Two changes—Rickelton and Baartman come in. Burger and de Zorzi will be out for a couple of weeks.”
KL Rahul: “We’ll bowl. We trained here last night and the feedback was that there was dew, but it didn’t come in as early as Ranchi and Raipur. We want to change the total and see how we can bowl first. We’re really happy with the way we played in the last two games. Considering the conditions, I think we did really well. The chat has been to stay consistent with our process. One change—Washington Sundar misses out and Tilak Varma comes in.”
India have won the toss and have opted to field.
STAT: The last time India won the toss in an ODI was in the CWC 2023 semi-final against New Zealand at Wankhede.