Having already won 3 ODIs, Virat Kohli-led India will clash against South Africa for the 4th time with the aim to seal the series. On the other hand, South Africa will be boosted with the comeback of their star player AB de Villiers into the side. The 4th ODI is played at Johannesburg and toss is won by captain Kohli and chose to bat first. This means South Africa will be chasing once again.
De Villiers, who was rested for the first three ODIs due to injury, is now in the pink of his health for the Pink ODI. Out of a total of 4 times, South Africa and India have faced each other at this venue. India have only won once back in 2011, courtesy Munaf Patel’s heroics as South Africa lost by 1 run while chasing only 190.
After winning the toss, Kohli said, “We are gonna bat first. Looks like a hard pitch with a good grass cover. We reckon the ball will come onto the bat nicely. It is always difficult under lights to chase at the Wanderers. We want to take the opportunity to bat first again. We don’t want to focus on the weather. We don’t know when the thunderstorms are going to hit. That is not under anyone’s control. Not much has gone wrong. The hallmark of this team in the shorter formats has been we look to rectify our mistakes even in wins. We have one forced change. Kedar Jadhav did his hammy in the last game and Shreyas Iyer comes in.”
Followed by Kohli, Markram expressed, “We were unsure of what to do. Not too disappointed of how what is turned out. Focussing on today and how we are going to go about. We hope the pink uniform brings some renewed energy and luck. AB is back. He replaces Zondo. Morkel comes in for Tahir.”
India (Playing XI): Rohit Sharma, Shikhar Dhawan, Virat Kohli(c), Ajinkya Rahane, Shreyas Iyer, MS Dhoni(w), Hardik Pandya, Kuldeep Yadav, Yuzvendra Chahal, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Jasprit Bumrah
South Africa (Playing XI): Hashim Amla, Aiden Markram(c), Jean-Paul Duminy, AB de Villiers, Heinrich Klaasen(w), David Miller, Chris Morris, Andile Phehlukwayo, Kagiso Rabada, Lungisani Ngidi, Morne Morkel