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SA vs IND | 2nd ODI| Preview: It’s now or never as India look to stretch series to third game

Abhishek Singh

The Indian team lost the first ODI of the three-match series against South Africa quite blatantly though the margin did not show it because of a cameo from Shardul Thakur at the end. However, India’s coach Rahul Dravid would be aware of it and would have planned well to get back to the third game in a better way than that. 

On the other hand, South Africa, which won the Test series against India, would look to consolidate its good form and win the ODI series as well to showcase that it is still a dominant force at home than being a pushover. 

Thus the second match gives both of these teams an important opportunity to take their game one level up and compete fiercely with one aiming to take the series to the decider and the other to kill it before moving to Capetwin for the final match.

South Africa vs India: Match Details

Match Number-02

Date and Time: 21 January 2021, 2022, 02:00 pm IST, 10:00 am Local, 09:30 am GMT

Venue: Boland Park, Paarl

Broadcast and Live Stream: Star Sports and Hotstar

Pitch Report

The pitch at Boland Park was slow and low to start with and difficult for a new batter to come and score quickly. But once the batters got settled, it was easier to score as was seen in the case of Temba Bavuma and Rassie van der Dussen in South African innings and Shikhar Dhawan and Virat Kohli in Indian innings. 

Weather Forecast

The weather at Paarl will remain sunny throughout the day and pose no problem whatsoever in terms of interruptions. However, it would be very hot there and hence cramps could be an issue for players batting for a longer period of time. 

Team News

South Africa

As such, there seem to be no changes in the playing XI of the South African unit as they like to tread safely with the winning combination. Since there are no injuries to anyone either, then the same XI that played the first ODI is likely to feature in this game as well. 

Probable XI

Quinton de Kock (wk), Janneman Malan, Temba Bavuma (c), Aiden Markram, Rassie van der Dussen, David Miller, Andile Phehlukwayo, Marco Jansen, Keshav Maharaj, Lungi Ngidi, Tabraiz Shamsi

India

It was strange that Venkatesh Iyer was played as a batter who could finish the game and bowl a few overs as well. 

But strangely, even after a 204 run partnership being built by the South African batters, he was not given the ball by the captain KL Rahul. So either Venkatesh Iyer could go out in the next game and an extra batter could be played by the time or it could compromise with Shardul Thakur who was overtly expensive. 

But given the fact that Thakur could belt the ball with the bat and is definitely a better bowler than Iyer, either Ruturaj Gaikwad or Suryakumar Yadav could be played in place of Iyer. However, since both the Rahuls, the captain and the coach don’t like personalities who will alter their XI just because of one loss, hence the same XI would persist eventually. 

Probable XI

KL Rahul (c), Shikhar Dhawan, Virat Kohli, Rishabh Pant (wk), Shreyas Iyer, Venkatesh Iyer, R Ashwin, Shardul Thakur, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Jasprit Bumrah, Yuzvendra Chahal

CE Fantasy XI

Quinton de Kock (wk), KL Rahul, Shikhar Dhawan, Virat Kohli (vc), Temba Bavuma, Rassie van der Dussen (c), Venkatesh Iyer, Marco Jansen, Jasprit Bumrah, Lungi Ngidi, Tabraiz Shamsi

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