South Africa seek consolation win

South Africa will look to end the tour with a consolation win in the third ODI at Ahmedabad after they lost the series, thanks to a master-piece from Sachin Tendulkar at Gwalior.

Despite being down 0-2, South Africa are going into the last match of the series as favourites because India have made a number of changes to their line-up. They will be resting some of their key players and take the opportunity to test their bench strength. Both the Indian openers, Sachin Tendulkar and Virender Sehwag have been rested and are likely to be replaced by Dinesh Karthik and Murali Vijay in the opening slots. Virat Kohli will finally get a chance to move into no.3, unless MS Dhoni decides to play in that position. Suresh Raina had exhibited good form in the first game of the series, and he could be promoted up the order. The bowling attack might see a couple of changes as well with Sudeep Tyagi and R.Ashwin waiting in the ranks.

South Africa may not make too many changes to their batting except replacing JP Duminy in the middle order, who as been in very poor form over the recent past and misses out to the injury he picked up while fielding at Gwalior. Loots Bosman or Albie Morkel would be his possible replacements in the Proteas’ middle order. Hashim Amla had  gotten off to a good start in his innings in the second ODI, but failed to make it count. AB de Villiers on the other hand looked in ominous touch and scored an unbeaten century, even though it was in a losing cause. There is a sense that de Villiers could well be the man to watch in the last game at Ahmedabad.