India and South Africa change formats and play a quick 3 match ODI series starting on Thursday. The first match of the series will be played at the Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee Stadium Ekana at Lucknow. India and South Africa played 3 ODI games earlier this year when India was touring South Africa. It was a clean sweep for South Africa as they won all the games.
India will be missing its major stars as they have departed for Australia to take part in the 2022 T20 World Cup. This series is a chance for some of the fringe players to make their spots permanent. Players like Shubman Gill, Shreyas Iyer, Sanju Samson, Mohammad Siraj and Deepak Chahar will view this chance as god send. Especially, Siraj and Chahar who are in contention to replace Bumrah in the 15 man squad for the 2022 T20 World Cup.
Venue of the Game – Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee Stadium, Ekana, Lucknow
Timing of the Game – 13.30 PM Indian Standard Time
Likely Pitch Conditions –
This is the first time India will be playing at this venue. India and South Africa were supposed to play here in 2020 but the match and series was cancelled due to COVID. West Indies and Afghanistan have played the 3 ODI games that was played in this ground. The pitch is likely to assist the batters when the ball is new and spin will play a big role in the latter stages. As we have stepped into the month of October, expect Dew to play a role while batting 2nd.
The stats of the venue –
ODI games played at this ground -3
Games won batting 1st – 1
Games won batting 2nd – 2
Highest scorer at the venue – Shai Hope -109* versus Afghanistan
Best bowling figures at the venue – 3/29 by Sheldon Cottrell versus Afghanistan
Sixes hit at this venue – 28 in 3 games
Likely XIs for the game –
India Likely XI – S. Dhawan (Captain), S. Iyer (Vice-Captain). S. Gill, I. Kishan. S. Samson (WK), S. Ahmed, S. Thakur, D. Chahar, K. Yadav, A. Khan, M. Siraj
South Africa Likely XI – T. Bavuma (Captain), Q. De. Kock, R. Hendricks, A. Markram, D. Miller, D. Pretorius, W. Parnell, K. Maharaj, K. Rabada, A. Nortje and T. Shamsi
India versus South Africa head to head record –
Matches played -87
Games won by India – 35
Games won by South Africa – 49
No Results/ Tie – 3
Approaching Milestones –
§ Shubman Gill needs I run to complete 500 runs in ODI cricket in his 10th game
§ Sanju Samson needs 28 runs to complete 500 runs in ODI cricket in his 24th match for India
§ Shardul Thakur needs 14 wickets to complete 50 ODI wickets
§ Kuldeep Yadav with 112 wickets is at 20th place in the all time wicket takers list. If Yadav picks 7 wickets in the series he will move past Chahal who has 118 ODI wickets.
§ Quinton De Kock is 226 runs away from reaching 6000 runs in ODI cricket
§ David Miller needs 4 more sixes to reach the 100 sixes mark in ODI cricket
§ Tabriz Shamsi is 1 wicket away from completing 50 wickets in ODI cricket