Uber Cup badminton: India’s young women’s squad beats Canada 4-1
Cape Town, February 24
India would be eyeing a perfect end to what has been a thoroughly roller-coaster tour when they take on a depleted but not deflated South Africa in the decisive third T20 International here tomorrow. With the series level at 1-1 following India’s six-wicket loss in the second match, the visitors will look to close out the eight-week long tour with a series win.
While India have never played a T20I at Newlands, the hosts have played eight games here, winning three and losing five. The win in the previous game must have lifted the morale of the hosts. Following the series-levelling win, stand-in skipper JP Duminy had insisted that they had well-set plans for the Indian batsmen and bowlers since the start of this series, but just needed proper execution as was showcased in the second game.
Duminy had named an unchanged eleven in the previous game, and it remains to be seen if they will bother breaking away from this consistency in the series-decider.
Bumrah doubtful
India will be fretting over the fitness of Jasprit Bumrah ahead of the decider. The pacer had missed the last match due to an abdominal strain. Will the team management risk playing him in this match? Maybe yes, for there’s a two-week gap before a tri-series, involving India, Bangladesh and hosts Sri Lanka, begins; besides, this game will in a way decide which team ends the tour with bragging rights.
Besides the doubts over Bumrah’s availability, the overall bowling combination is another concern in the Indian camp. The visitors have shown a propensity to field a left-arm pacer in this format, but Jaydev Unadkat has proven expensive so far. He has picked up two wickets for 75 runs at an economy rate of 9.78. Yuzvendra Chahal has also been hammered; the leggie has conceded 103 runs in eight overs, picking just one wicket. In this scenario, Virat Kohli might feel tempted to change the look of his bowling attack. If Bumrah does play, Unadkat is likely to make way for him.
Arguably, Chahal bowls a more consistent line than Kuldeep Yadav and that explains the latter’s omission from the first two games. However, with Chahal’s confidence taking a hit, Yadav could find himself in the reckoning for this all-important game. Further, given South Africa’s frailty against change of pace, India might even be tempted to consider Axar Patel.
After losing the first two Tests, India had turned things around with a victory in the third Test, and then carried the momentum into the ODI series to win it by a thumping 5-1 margin. Now, they will be keen to win the T20I series as well, and fly out with an additional trophy.
