SA v AUS, 4th ODI Preview: Australia seeks to avoid humiliation

In the third ODI at Durban, the only thing that stood between Australia and a win was the brilliance of David Miller. The southpaw defied expectations and smashed the odds light-years away from Kingsmead as the Proteas went ahead and picked up a series win. However, with the penultimate ODI scheduled to be played at Port of Elizabeth, the Australians will certainly fancy themselves whilst playing for their pride.

Team Analysis

South Africa

As mentioned before, David Miller quite effectively handed the trophy of the series to Faf du Plessis with an audacious innings filled with plenty of fireworks. However, the wicket at Port of Elizabeth is expected to be completely different from the deck present at Kingsmead, Durban. The wicket at Port of Elizabeth is expected to be a vicious one with plenty of pace in it.

This simple aspect is expected to stimulate the captain’s thinking on how to select his side based on the conditions. This would probably see Hashim Amla retained in the side in spite of the selection controversy that has been brewing in the South African camp lately. Rilee Rossouw is also expected to keep his place in the side thus ensuring that there are just two right-handed batsmen in the side.

One selection that will be imminent would be that of Farhaan Behardien as the Proteas would look to strike a balance in the batting and bowling unit. With pace the major take away from the track, South Africa will have a place for just the one spinner. Imran Tahir is more likely to take that role ahead of chinaman Tabraiz Shamsi.

Australia

With fatigue starting to play a massive role in Australian cricket this year, the tour has been an epitome of the aforementioned statement. The pace battery once consisting of Mitchell Starc and Josh Hazelwood now consists of Joe Mennie, David Worrall, and Chris Tremain. While these youngsters are admired for their impressive bowling, they are not ready for the international challenge as of yet.

However, in spite of this, the batsmanship exhibited by some of the Australian batsmen has been quite commendable thus far. David Warner and George Bailey have been the ones to impress with the bat with some consistent run scoring. Travis Head has also seemingly come of age with some heavy hitting towards the end of the innings.

The limelight will be on John Hastings and Scot Boland who will be hoping to lead this inexperienced bowling attack. David Worrall is expected to be left out of the side after having made little or no impact on proceedings.

Probable XI-

South Africa:

Faf du Plessis (C), Quinton de Kock (wk), Hashim Amla, JP Duminy, Rilee Rossouw, David Miller, Farhaan Behardien, Imran Tahir, Dale Steyn, Kagiso Rabada, Kyle Abbott/Andile Phehlukwayo

Australia:

Steve Smith (C), Matthew Wade (wk), Aaron Finch, David Warner, George Bailey, Travis Head, Mitchell Marsh, John Hastings, Scot Boland, Chris Tremain, Adam Zampa

StAttack

1. South Africa has a bad record at this ground with just 4 wins in their last 10 matches. Of this, the last three matches have been lost by the hosts

2. David Miller requires 13 runs to complete 2000 ODI runs.

3. Farhaan Behardien requires 64 runs to complete 1000 ODI runs.

4. Quinton de Kock requires 7 dismissals to complete 100 dismissals and become only the third South African to complete the same. He also requires 11 catches to complete 100 catches in ODIs.

5. Matthew Wade requires 2 dismissals to complete 100 ODI dismissals. Moreover, he requires 10 catches to complete 100 catches.

6. John Hastings requires 10 wickets to complete 50 ODI wickets