🏏SA vs India, 2nd ODI: St George's Park, Gqeberha 🏏

🏏SA vs India, 2nd ODI: St George's Park, Gqeberha 🏏

This is the second of the three ODI cricket matches in the series. On December 17, India beat the Proteas in the first ODI match by 8 wickets at the Wanderers Stadium.

KL Rahul leads the Men in Blue whereas Aiden Markram leads the hosts. In the last 5 ODIs between these two, India have won 4 times. In fact, in the last 3 ODIs, India bowled out the Proteas for 116, 83 and 99 respectively.

For South Africa, it was a bit of a false start under Aiden Markram the ODI captain who is standing in for Temba Bavuma but is touted to take over the reins in the long run anyway.

Speaking after the eight-wicket defeat, Markram threw his weight behind "positive batting" like most modern captains but also called for "smart options" from his players. It was unlike anything that KL Rahul asked of his players after the match.

He didn't need to, for he was just "happy" to get a win under his belt, not in the least because this was the first ODI after the World Cup heartbreak and marked the start of a new era in the format, with Rahul likely at the helm of affairs.

How do South Africa come back from this? How do India not get overawed by an unprecedented win? There's a lot to look forward to in Gqeberha, and fortunately it is not a lot of rain.

Out of 42 ODIs played in this venue so far, there was only one match that produced no result. The records for batting first and second are pretty balanced.

Teams batting second have won 21 times, while teams batting first have won 20 times.

South Africa: Batting let them down at the Wanderers but there' little buffer for them in the squad, so the hosts are likely to stick to the same side.

Probable XI: Reeza Hendricks, Tony de Zorzi, Rassie van der Dussen, Aiden Markram (c), Heinrich Klaasen(w), David Miller, Wiaan Mulder, Andile Phehlukwayo, Keshav Maharaj, Nandre Burger, Tabraiz Shamsi

India: Change? Why would you?

Probable XI: Ruturaj Gaikwad, Sai Sudharsan, Shreyas Iyer, Tilak Varma, KL Rahul(w/c), Sanju Samson, Axar Patel, Arshdeep Singh, Avesh Khan, Kuldeep Yadav, Mukesh Kumar

India vs South Africa weather

Gqeberha will remain cloudy in the morning and clear up later in the day. The chance of rain is low (2-9%). The humidity will be extremely high at 92%. During the match, the temperature will remain comfortable at 19-23 degrees.

What to expect: There's "light rain" forecast on the day but luckily it's before the match is scheduled to kick off. The bounce at the venue is lower than most other venues in the country, and it reflects in South Africa's recent record here. They have lost two of the last three ODIs here, both to teams from the Indian subcontinent.

St George's Park is expected to favour spinners. The expected score is around 250-260 runs. However, in 1992, South African legend Allan Donald took 12 wickets for 139 on a pitch that was considered a fast bowler's nightmare. Thanks to that, the Proteas secured a 9-wicket win.

Did you know?

South Africa lost the opening game with 200 balls remaining, their second-heaviest loss going by that metric. It came after they had collapsed to their lowest total in a home ODI.

Indian pacers shared nine wickets in the opening ODI, the most by India in an ODI in South Africa.

Yuzvendra Chahal, who warmed the bench in the first ODI, returned 18 wickets in eight one-day games in the Vijay Hazare Trophy, India's premium List A tournament. He did so at an average of 14.83 and an economy rate of 3.7 only.

KL Rahul only has 76 runs across three ODIs in South Africa.

Kuldeep has bagged at least three wickets in four of his seven ODI outings in SA.

As per CricTracker, India will win the match no matter who bats first. MyKhel says that India will beat the Proteas again in the second match and win the ODI series. We, too, believe that the Men in Blue will dominate the hosts and clinch the series.

What they said:

"My county stint wasn't very fruitful, I didn't get many wickets there, but it helped me understand my game, how I can contain the batters. I've learnt how to recover, how to train, how to maintain my fitness. Playing county helped me big time. It gives you that extra bit of confidence and self-belief" - Arshdeep Singh

"Credit should go to the Indian bowlers for the way they bowled. We failed to build partnerships and lost wickets regularly. We were behind the game from the get-go and failed to find a way to crawl our way back into it" - Aiden Markram

Axar Patel, Avesh Khan and Arshdeep Singh had gone out for dinner on the eve of the first ODI in Johannesburg and discussed South Africa at the Pink ODIs. About how "brutal" they get when the colour of their kits change from green to pink and "how they hit sixes" in the words of Arshdeep. So you couldn't blame the left-arm pacer for being a bit surprised at South Africa's 116 all out, when the plan from the Indian bowlers was something else entirely.

"We were just thinking about restricting them under 400..." Arshdeep would reveal after the match, where he picked the PoTM award for his bowling figures of 5-37.

Of course the win came at The Wanderers, India's favourite venue in South Africa where they have won more than they have lost, but what awaits them in the second ODI isn't too bad either. St George's Park in Gqeberha is one of the slower venues across the country and promises to bring India's spinners into the contest too. Kuldeep Yadav and Yuzvendra Chahal shared six wickets the last time India played an ODI here.

Thanks for the tag n thread. Hope ind wins the match. Good luck

Aaj match bhi hai

Thank you for the tag, Madhuri