RSA vs IND 2nd Match Prediction

RSA vs IND Team Previews

South Africa

South Africa won the toss and elected to bat first on a surface that had a bit of something for the bowlers. Nothing extravagant but a little movement. They would be disappointed to collapse to their lowest ODI Total at home and to just not have been able to put up a fight at all. 

As expected, the team had several new faces to watch out for and the batting looked a bit frail. On paper, South Africa had enough depth to recover from early losses. They had Andile Phehlukwayo batting at number 8 and he ended up being their highest run-scorer in the previous match. 

We don't think the batting order will change just after one poor match. 

While Markram, Klaasen, and Miller remain the core of the batting lineup, de Zorzi looked impressive and the depth in batting is a definite advantage. A better batting display can be expected in the second match. 

Without any significant total to defend, South Africa's bowlers cannot really be judged on their performance of the previous match. They have two excellent spin-bowling options but the seam attack seems a bit thin without the Test attack being available for this series. 

India

India will be without Shreyas Iyer for the rest of the series since he has been withdrawn to stay fresh for the upcoming test series. This will force another change in the lineup and we think it will open the door for Rinku Singh to make his ODI debut. 

KL Rahul led well and we also thought he picked a decent lineup from the squad available. 

The batting lineup for India looks very good. Ruturaj Gaikwad is at his best in the ODI format and Sai Sudharsan looked impressive on debut. With Iyer not being available, it seems likely that Tilak Varma will move up to number three and KL Rahul may move up to number 4. 

Sanju Samson and Rinku Singh could form an explosive lower-middle order. 

India does not have too many all-round options, so Axar Patel is forced to bat at 7 with almost no batting to follow. 

Arshdeep Singh and Avesh Khan were very impressive in the previous match when there was some help on offer. They could also get some helpful conditions in Gqeberha where the ball can nip around a bit. There is no significant pace in the Indian squad and Axar Patel will also have to adjust his line a bit to be successful in South Africa. 

India's bowling, as impressive as it looked in the previous match, is definitely its weak link. We expect Kuldeep Yadav to pose a threat to the South African batters consistently.