5th ODI: India renew pursuit of history, South Africa hope rally continues

Knocked back in the previous match India will look to crush a South African revival before it becomes a threat to their pursuit of a maiden ODI series triumph here when the two sides clash in the fifth onedayer tomorrow The Men in Blue still have a twomatch cushion in the sixODI series They lead 31 after winning the first in Durban by six wickets the second in Centurion by nine wickets and the third in Cape Town by 124 runs The Proteas bounced back by winning the rainaffected and lightningstruck Pink ODI in Johannesburg by five wicketsIndias wristspinners versus South Africas batting lineup is still the key contest going ahead in this series At Johannesburg the dual rain intervention affected Indias momentum with both the bat and ball More importantly it reduced the target sufficiently that despite AB de Villiers relative early dismissal the home batsmen didnt have much trouble getting past The T20mode of that second innings coupled with the best batting surface of the series allowed David Miller and Heinrich Klaasen to attack the wrist spinners and take the game awayOf course the dropped catch and bowling Miller off a no ball didnt help Indias cause either Yet a raintruncated innings is hardly enough evidence that South Africa have learnt how to contend with the wrist spin of Yuzvendra Chahal and Kuldeep Yadav Additionally Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Jasprit Bumrah were not used to great effect as Virat Kohli chose to rely on the spinners even when they were unable to respond to the Proteas concentrated attack In this light Indias team selection will come into focus in Port Elizabeth There are still questionmarks about the fitness of Kedar Jadhav who suffered a hamstring injury in Cape Town and missed the previous game Albeit a parttimer in his absence India lose a reliable bowling alternative particularly if Hardik Pandya takes some stick and cannot complete his quota of overs Jadhav is adept at bowling slow spin and mixing it up well with Chahal and Yadav India do not have many fallback options in Jadhavs absence Rohit Sharma last bowled an ODI over at Perth in January 2016 Shreyas Iyer is known to practice leg break and had bowled an over against Sri Lanka in his debut seriesNeither of them provides a reliable option like Jadhav does Kohli himself is the other contender but he bowls seamup In summation Jadhavs bowling is being missed more than his batting ability despite a troublesome middleorder and it indicates Indias team balance is still not optimal Ajinkya Rahane has scored 11 and 8 since making a comeback 79 at no4 Pandyas forgettable tour with the bat since the first Test in early January continues with scores of 14 and 9 in his last two outings MS Dhonis 42 not out off 43 balls was the only saving grace for this shaky middleorder as India struggled to finish well at JohannesburgThe series scoreline has conveniently hid the fact that India have a topheavy batting order despite the poor form of Rohit Sharma who has scored 40 runs in the first four ODIs and boasts a gradually sinking ODI average of 1145 in 12 matches on South African soil Kohli 393 runs and Shikhar Dhawan 271 runs have scored nearly thrice the number of runs put together by the remaining batsmen 239 and it ought to be a cause of major worry for the Indian thinktank This fact will not go overlooked and South Africa will be keen to exploit the Indian lineups frailty and dismiss Kohli and Dhawan cheaply to gain an early advantage It remains to be seen what bowling combination the hosts will go in withOn a hard and bouncy Wanderers wicket they had dropped a fulltime spinner altogether relying solely on JP Duminy to do that job St Georges Park though has a history of aiding spinners and in the last two ODIs played here the Proteas spinners have been in prominence In January 2017 Imran Tahir took 3 26 against Sri Lanka In October 2016 Tabraiz Shamsi picked up 336 against Australia while South Africa also picked a second spinner in Aaron Phangiso who took 217 South Africa have lost 11 out of 32 matches played at this ground Six of those losses have come in the last decade as Port Elizabeth hosts at least one ODI every home summer Indias record here is nothing to write about either They have lost all 5 ODIs played here since 1992Four of those defeats came against South Africa while the Men in Blue even managed to lose to Kenya here during the oneday triangular as part of their 200102 tour In fact in five previous ODI outings in Port Elizabeth India have never scored 200 runs here as 176 against South Africa in October 2001 is their highest total yet Once again on this trip India will have to fight dubious past performances and erase a lopsided record only this time in a bid to carve out a fresh piece of historyTeams from India Virat Kohli capt Shikhar Dhawan Rohit Sharma Ajinkya Rahane Shreyas Iyer Manish Pandey Dinesh Karthik Kedar Jadhav MS Dhoni wk Hardik Pandya Yuzvendra Chahal Kuldeep Yadav Axar Patel Bhuvneshwar Kumar Jasprit Bumrah Mohammed Shami Shardul Thakur South Africa Aiden Markram capt Hashim Amla JP Duminy Imran Tahir David Miller Morne Morkel Chris Morris Lungisani Ngidi Andile Phehlukwayo Kagiso Rabada Tabraiz Shamsi Khayelihle Zondo Farhaan Behardien Heinrich Klaasen wk AB de VilliersCatch up on all the latest sports news and updates hereDownload the new midday Android and iOS apps to get updates on all the latest and trending stories on the go