South Africa vs India, 3rd T20I Match Preview, Prediction and Live Streaming

How often do you see a third match after a 1-1 not being the decider? Or a four-match T20I series? And how often do you fly to South Africa only to find the ball turning off the pitch instead of rocketing up to meet the batter’s helmet? Not very often, eh? We figured that. But so have India and South Africa. The way this series has behaved has been very unnatural but with the teams returning to the old and revered centurion ground, they might start going back to normal.

Team Overview:

The only difference between India’s batting lineup in the first two T20Is has been Sanju Samson. In the first game, he scored a blistering hundred to propel India past 200, though the remaining batters failed to make much impact. In the second game, Samson could not conjure the same mojo from the series opener, hence failing to score big and hoping that the rest of his teammates would take care of the scoreboard for him this time. Little did he know that he would stand as the only difference between both games. The remaining batters failed to make any impact again, only this time there was no Samson century to rescue them. The defeat in the second T20I would have been more humbling if not for Gqeberha’s tricky surface and the Indian bowler’s insistence on squeezing every whiff of turn it had.

South African batters have clearly been intimidated by Indian spinners, especially Varun Chakravarthy, so far in this series. One might argue that the spinners and conditions caught them off guard, but this does not change the fact that even with most of their first-choice batters, the team had to suffice with a 19th-over victory while chasing a modest target of 124. Aiden Markaram’s lean patch is becoming a painful liability for the team, worsening their batting struggles. To make matters worse, the side lacks a decent and reliable spinner in the squad, which could spell woeful for them, even if the grounds are more favourable to pace than spin.

Head-to-Head Matches:

South Africa have played India in 29 shortest-format games, winning a dozen and seeing India outclass them in sixteen. One game ended in a no result, thanks to Bengaluru’s relentless rain.

Weather and Pitch Report:

The series has moved away from coastal areas to the Northern part of the country. Centurion is a place of dreams for batters. With its flat wicket and fast outfield, a high-scoring game is definitely on the cards. Fast bowlers will find immense help from the surface, however, they should avoid banging in short of a length lest they want to be dispatched into the stands. The key for the bowling side is to get wickets instead of stopping the run flow. The toss-winning captain should opt to field first and try to restrict the opponents to as low a target as they can.

Prediction:

South Africa have a stronger fast bowling lineup than India and that could be the difference between both sides in Centurion. The last time India played a white-ball game at the venue was in 2018, and no one, barring Hardik Pandya, from their current squad was a part of that game.