SA VS IND 3rd T20 LIVE: Where to Watch, Live Streaming, & Match Preview

The third T20 of the ongoing series between India and South Africa will be played on 13th November in Centurion.

Match Preview:

Pace and Bounce. These two words come to mind when one thinks of cricket in South Africa but the first two T20 of the series have been a different story. The pitch in KingsMead and Oval had supported spinners more than pacers and in the first two games India looked more at home than the hosts.

Nevertheless, things may take a drastic change as the third game will be played at Centurion, a venue which supports the traditional South African cricket. As of now, the series is levelled, much thanks to the heroics of Tristan Stubbs. The batter scored 47 off 41 in a low thriller and made sure his team crossed the winning line.

Talking about the homeside, they will look to improve their game against spin as they have struggled badly against Varun Chakravarthy and Ravi Bishnoi. Particularly, Varun was outstanding as he spun the web around African batters keeping them at bay.

Nevertheless, Marco Jansen, who bowled beautifully in the second T20 said, the “conditions” at Centurion will be quite different from the last two venues.

“Playing spin here is a lot different than playing it in PE [Port Elizabeth, Gqeberha’s earlier name] or Durban,”

“There is a lot more bounce here and they will probably try a fuller length. How we go about that is different for each individual.

“I think we didn’t play spin as well as we wanted to in PE. There were a few soft dismissals where we felt we could definitely make better decisions and execute better”

While South Africa will look to sharp their blade against spin, India will search for the contribution from the lower middle-order, a much needed contribution in the T20is.

While Sanju Samson had given the team an ideal start, the Indian batting lineup seemed to be at pause at number 7. The side only scored 40 runs in their last six overs in the first T20 overs and in the second T20 they lost early wickets and could not recover, because of lack of depth.

While the batting unit will be looking to overcome their woes, Arshdeep Singh said the side can continue the spin tactics at Centurion too as the other side had struggled to get going against their spin attack.

“The South Africa batters are struggling against spin,” Arshdeep said. “So the idea is to contain early on and give a good platform to our spinners to attack and take wickets.”

Probable Playing XI:

South Africa: 1 Ryan Rickelton, 2 Reeza Hendricks, 3 Aiden Markram (capt), 4 Tristan Stubbs, 5 Heinrich Klaasen (wk), 6 David Miller, 7 Marco Jansen, 8 Andile Simelane/Lutho Sipamla, 9 Gerald Coetzee, 10 Keshav Maharaj, 11 Nqabayomzi Peter

India: 1 Sanju Samson (wk), 2 Abhishek Sharma, 3 Suryakumar Yadav (capt), 4 Tilak Varma, 5 Hardik Pandya, 6 Rinku Singh, 7 Axar Patel, 8 Arshdeep Singh, 9 Ravi Bishnoi, 10 Avesh Khan, 11 Varun Chakravarthy

Pitch and weather report:

While a clear and pleasant day is expected at Centurion, a high-scoring encounter is expected between two finalists of the T20 World Cup 2024. Centurion hosted a record breaking game in March 2023 when West Indies posted a total of 258 in 20 overs only for South Africa to pull off a record chase with more than an over to spare.

Head-to-head record:

South Africa have faced India in 29 T20i games and won 12 games while India stood victorious in 16.

Prediction:

Given recent heroics, South Africa continue their match-winning momentum going to the venue which will favour the host side.