South Africa look to maintain Pink ODI momentum

Port Elizabeth: After winning the first three games in the ODI series against South Africa, Team India was handed a shock defeat in the fourth ODI at the Wanderers Stadium in Johannesburg.

With rain playing spoilsport, South Africa seized the moment to win the game by 5 wickets. And even as the teams gear up to play the fifth ODI at St. George’s Park in Port Elizabeth, Virat Kohli and his boys have their task cut-out.

Despite that, Klaasen – playing just his second ODI – needed to produce a solid rearguard effort to see this through, and his runs came in crucial partnerships of 72 with David Miller and 33 with Andile Phehlukwayo.

The challenge for South Africa now will to be keep at it in the fifth ODI in Port Elizabeth and stay in with a chance of keeping the series going.

There were plenty of positives they can take heart from, like the fact that despite Shikhar Dhawan (109) and Kohli (75) getting among the runs, they restricted India to 289/7.

However, it is equally true that India made matters hard for themselves. Before bad weather interrupted play, India seemed well on course for a total around 350. And later while chasing a truncated total, South Africa did fall to 102/4 before Miller and Klaasen ground things out.

India must brush the loss aside and look to wrap the series up. They are still favourites to do just that. South Africa will need to build on the positives, and ensure the negatives are kept at a minimum.

Teams from

South Africa: Aiden Markram (capt), Hashim Amla, Farhaan Behardien, AB de Villiers, JP Duminy, Imran Tahir, Heinrich Klaasen (wk), David Miller, Morne Morkel, Chris Morris, Lungi Ngidi, Andile Phehlukwayo, Kagiso Rabada, Tabraiz Shamsi, Khaya Zondo

India: Virat Kohli (capt), Rohit Sharma (vice-capt), Jasprit Bumrah, Yuzvendra Chahal, Shikhar Dhawan, MS Dhoni (wk), Shreyas Iyer, Kedar Jadhav, Dinesh Karthik, Kuldeep Yadav, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Mohammed Shami, Manish Pandey, Hardik Pandya, Axar Patel, Ajinkya Rahane, Shardul Thakur

Pitch and condition
Plenty of rain is forecast in Port Elizabeth on Tuesday, and it is likely to affect the match at some stage.

Stats and trivia

• India has played four ODIs on this ground and is yet to register a win at the venue
• 46 runs needed by MS Dhoni to complete 10000 runs ODIs.
• 90 runs needed by Ajinkya Rahane to complete 3000 runs ODIs.

Match facts
Tuesday 13 February, 2018
Start time 13:00 local (11:00 GMT)