South Africa v India 2013: 5 predictions for the 3rd ODI

India vs South Africa

After the thrashings at The Wanderers and at Kingsmead, India will be looking to make amends in the third ODI to be played tomorrow at Centurion, good weather provided. More than anything, India would want to come up with a strong performance just to prove to everyone, that they’re not the world’s top ODI side for nothing. Also, India would want to go into the big test series with some momentum on their side. Here are 5 things to look forward to at Centurion.

1. Quinton de Kock and Hashim Amla

De Kock and Amla have had a dream ODI series. The former with two hundreds, and the latter with two strong contributions. De Kock is in the initial stages of his career, and has shown lot of promise. Amla though, has become a seasoned pro, and in Durban, went past Sir Viv as the fastest man to 4000 ODI runs. They’ve had a fantastic time of things so far, and the Indian new ball bowlers would definitely want to stop a 3rd big partnership.

2. The Rolls Royce and the Citi Golf

That was the analogy Ryan McLaren used to compare Jacques Kallis and himself. But, in all truth, Kallis’s place in the South African ODI side is under severe threat, thanks to strong performances from the McLaren and others like David Miller and Francois du Plessis. At Centurion, it will be another opportunity for Kallis to stamp his authority or another opportunity for the critics to call for his head.

3. Dale Steyn and co. will come hard at India

Why not? They’ve had so much success in this series, and it will be no surprise to see South Africa go in with an all-pace attack again. With the Indian batsmen floundering against quality pace bowling, it is only understandable that the Proteas would want to pepper them with more pace and bounce. Every member of South Africa’s pace bowling unit has been amongst the wickets, with Steyn, Morne Morkel, McLaren and Lonwabo Tsotsobe being ably supported by the likes of Vernon Philander and Kallis. So, at Centurion, another barrage of aggressive fast bowling awaits India.

4. The Indian Reaction

Hopefully, from the neutral’s perspective, India will come up with a better performance than they did in the first two games. To be fair, India didn’t have much time to acclimatize to the conditions. Now that they’ve had two full games, the onus is on India to put up a performance befitting of the world’s top ODI side. It is important that India click as a team. All three departments need to click in unison for India to put the the Proteas under pressure. And, South Africa sometimes have the ability to lose games from the easiest of positions. So, India need to try and get their A-Game to the fore.

5. Better Indian Bowling

The Indian batting has received much flak, but the bowling hasn’t faired too well either. On fairly decent bowling wickets, when you concede 358 and 280, it isn’t saying much about your ability. The Indian bowlers do have the skill, but they haven’t executed anything right in this series, barring Mohammad Shami. They need to bowl better with the new ball, better at the death and the spinners need to put more pressure. It is understandable that the spinners won’t get too much help, but being the quality bowlers that they are, it is up to Ravi Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja to adjust to the conditions, and bowl better, to put South Africa under a little bit of pressure. Otherwise, another run feast await for the Proteas.