South Africa v Australia, 3rd ODI Preview:  Must win game for Australia

After losing the first two games of the series pretty badly, Australia has now put themselves in a spot of bother. The tourists suffered a six-wicket defeat as Quinton de Kock ran riot in the opening one-day international in Centurion before Faf du Plessis’ century led his side to a 142-run win for the hosts in Johannesburg.

The visitors now need to make sure that they win all the three remaining ODIs in order to grab the series. This feat, however, looks impossible given the form in which the home side is. The Proteas look favorites to clinch this series comfortably as it is hard to see Australia coming back to win three in a row.

South Africa:

South Africa performance in the series has been overwhelming so far. They have thoroughly dominated Australia and now it will all about being consistent for the remainder of the series. No loophole in the batting order. It looks perfectly fine. They have guys who score hundreds and push the run rate in the final overs. No changes are expected as far as the batting combination is concerned.

However, it remains to be seen whether Hashim Amla, the number three-ranked one-day batsman in the world, will come into the starting XI or not. After missing the opening match of the five-game series due to illness, he was mysteriously omitted for the second game in Johannesburg despite being declared fit to play.

Australia:

Two games and two heavy defeats and Australia find themselves surrounded by a high level of insecurity. Australia’s new-look bowling attack has failed miserably so far. The young bowlers have been expensive and borne the brunt of the protes batters.

The last two games have exposed Australia’s fast bowling bench strength in the absence of frontline bowlers Mitchell Starc, Josh Hazlewood and James Faulkner all missing. South Australia’s Joe Mennie and Victoria’s Chris Tremain, who got their debuts last game, were treated in the same manner Dan Worrall and Sam Boland were dealt with. The fast bowlers’ inabilty to cope with the opporsitions batsmane had put a lot of pressure on leg sppinner Adam Zampa.

Their batting has also not fired. Steven Smith and Aaron Finch are yet to fire at the top. Smith has managed just eight and 14 in the two innings so far. Finch, on the other hand, has made only 33 and 1. David Warner, Mitchell Marsh, and George Bailey have managed decent scores but would hope to play big knocks.

Probable XI:

South Africa:

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

Australia:

David Warner, Aaron Finch, Steven Smith (C), George Bailey, Mitchell Marsh, Travis Head, Matthew Wade (WK), John Hastings, Adam Zampa, Daniel Worrall, Scott Boland.

Match Details:

Date: October 5, 2016

Venue: Kingsmead, Durban

Time: 13:30 local (11:30 GMT

Telecast: Ten 3

Stats:

• South Africa has won just 18 of the 34 ODIs they have played in at Durban
• They have won three of their last two matches; one of the losses was against Australia
• Australia has won 6 of the 8 matches at Durban. Seven of these matches were against South Africa
• Quinton de Kock requires 7 dismissals to complete 100 ODI dismissals. Should he do this, he will join Mark Boucher (415) and Dave Richardson (167). AB de Villiers is ahead of him at the moment.
• David Miller requires 131 runs to complete 2000 ODI runs
• Matthew Wade has taken 98 dismissals and needs 2 more to reach the 100 dismissals milestone
• Farhaan Behardien requires 64 runs to complete 1000 ODI runs
• David Warner requires 16 runs to complete 3000 ODI runs
• George Bailey requires 27 runs to complete 3000 ODI runs