India v South Africa, match preview: India will have upper hand on South Africa in the 1st T20I in Dharamsala
The long waited India v South Africa – Mahatma Gandhi-Nelson Mandela – series will start the tomorrow (Oct 2) evening at picturesque HPCA cricket ground Dharamsala Cricket Stadium.
South Africa officially will start their campaign from tomorrow. India, who has the upper hand over South Africa in the shortest format of the game, will like to continue their supremacy over the visitors in the very first match of the series. On the other hand, South Africa lead by Faf du Plessis will lock horns with India to revive their fortunes in the shortest format of the game. They have drawn their last series at home when new Zealand spoiled their party in the last match, as the two-match series was drawn 1-1.
But, the imperative is that India’s home record is not as good as their away record that may in South Africa’s favour. India has won six of the last eight match against south Africa that would boost India’s confidence in the first of the three-match series, before going into the bigger scene of the game ODI and Test series.
As the 2016 World T20 in India is only six months away the three-match T20 series will bring huge attention to the game.
Indian team led by MS Dhoni, who is back in action after the Bangladesh tour in June, will be fresh from the hangover of the defeat in Bangladesh. Dhoni’s captaincy will be under scrutiny in this series as there was much talk before the series that selectors wanted to give the responsibility to Virat Kohli. Dhoni quit the Test captaincy during the tour of Australia.
Now, he has to respond his critics with the bat as well. South Africa have batsmen like AB de Villers, JP Duminy, Hasim Amla and David Miller in their ranks, so it is expected that the match will be exciting.
South Africa in their warm-up match lost to BCCI president XI even after scoring a massive 189 for 3. They have to be wary about the Indian bowlers led by Bhuvneshwar Kumar and R. Ashwin because the conditions will help Indian bowlers.
India, who has played only played two ODIs in Dharamsala Stadium, will play their first T20 match at this beautiful stadium. Both Indian and South African players have experience of playing in Dharamsala while playing for their respective IPL franchise.
Meanwhile, Indian batsman Ambati Rayadu is expected to make a cut in the playing XI over Ajinkya Rahane because of the ability to manipulate strike as per wish.
The experience of playing in Indian Premier will come in handy for South African bowlers. Imran Tahir, about whom Sachin Tendulkar and Sourav Ganguly said may create a problem for Indian batsmen, will be assisted by Chris Morris, Kagiso Rabada, Kyle Abbott and Marchant de Lange.
The weather report: The stadium is located at an altitude of 1317 meters above sea level, so the weather will be cooler than any other Indian city. At 7 pm in the evening the temperature will be around 15- 16 degrees. But, a few showers in tomorrow morning can reduce mercury in the evening.
Pitch conditions: Dew will be one of the factors in the match, the pitch will be sporting. It will help both pacers and batsmen. In the last ODI match, India has scored 330 and defeated West Indies by 59 runs. Virat Kohli and Marlon Samuels scored hundreds. However, the first match between India and England was a low scoring match. The venue is the first in India to use winter rye grass scattered around the outfield, which prevents the grass from dying when temperatures fall below 10 degrees.
Predicted XI
India: MS Dhoni (c&wk), Rohit Sharma, Shikhar Dhawan, Virat Kohli, Suresh Raina, Ambati Rayadu, Ravichandran Ashwin, Akshar Patel, Sreenath Aravind, Mohit Sharma, Bhuvneshwar Kumar
South Africa: Faf du Plessis (c), Hashim Amla, AB de Villiers (wk), David Miller, JP Duminy, Farhann BEHARDIEN, Imran Tahir, Chris Morris, Kagiso Rabada, Kyle Abbott, Marchant de Lange
Match Date: 02/10/2015
Live TV: Start Sports
Time: 7:00 PM (IST)
Match Referee: Chris Broad