Port Elizabeth, January 21: South Africa captain Graeme Smith has won the toss ahead of the fourth ODI against India at St. George’s Park and opted to bat first. Both captains expect the pitch to slow down considerably during the match. "We hope it doesn't," said MS Dhoni.
Smith said that he expects his team to be consistent throughout the match and overcome the two back-to-back losses. “We have done well for large parts of the game, this time we hope to play well for the whole 100 overs," he said.
There are two changes to the South African team that lost the third one-day match - Colin Ingram and Wayne Parnell are omitted. Replacing them are Morne van Wyk and Robin Petersen. For the Indians, Parthiv Patel has been named in the Playing XI in place of Murali Vijay.
The closely contested ODI series is now placed at 2-1 in India’s favour. A win here will fetch India a historic ODI series win in South Africa. If the hosts go on to win this one, the fifth ODI to be played on Sunday, January 23 will become the de facto final.
Playing XIs
India: Parthiv Patel, Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, Yuvraj Singh, Suresh Raina, MS Dhoni (c & wk), Yusuf Pathan, Harbhajan Singh, Zaheer Khan, Ashish Nehra, Munaf Patel
South Africa: Hashim Amla, Graeme Smith (c), Morne van Wyk, AB de Villiers (wk), Jean-Paul Duminy, Faf du Plessis, Robin Peterson, Johan Botha, Dale Steyn, Morne Morkel, Lonwabo Tsotsobe
