toss South Africa chose to bowl Vs India
South Africa made a change of captain but did not change tactics as Keshav Maharaj made the right call and opted to chase for the fifth match in succession, following the approach used by Temba Bavuma. South Africa’s white-ball captain was ruled out of the final in the fourth match on Friday after injuring his left elbow. The South African camp says he is responding well to treatment, but is not well enough to play in this match.
Bavuma’s absence meant another chance for Reeza Hendrix to bat alongside Quinton de Kock, and was one of three changes to the team that lost in Rajkot. Kagiso Rabada, who sat outside with a swallow on Friday, returned to the attack, while Lungi Ngidi kept his position, displacing Tabrez Shamsi. Tristan Stubbs, who made his Delhi debut and did not bat, returned to the XI in place of Marco Jensen. This meant that South Africa were playing an extra batsman and reduced their bowling options to four seamers and a specialist spinner, even though the pitch looked like it might have some assistance for the spinners.
India remained tied to the same team throughout the series and after conceding two consecutive victories, they did not make any changes to their XI, which meant that Umran Malik would not make his debut in the series. If India wins the match, they will be the first team to win a T20I series after going 2-0 down in the five-match series.
After a wet build-up for the decider, conditions in Bengaluru were suitable for play, but rain was forecast in some parts throughout the evening.
India: 1 Ishan Kishan, 2 Ruturaj Gaikwad, 3 Shreyas Iyer, 4 Rishabh Pant (capt, wk), 5 Hardik Pandya, 6 Dinesh Karthik, 7 Axar Patel, 8 Harshal Patel, 9 Avesh Khan, 10 Bhuvneshwar Kumar, 11 Yuzvendra Chahal
South Africa: 1 Quinton de Kock, 2 Reeza Hendrix, 3 Rassi van der Dussen, 4 David Miller, 5 Henrik Klaasen (wk), 6 Dwayne Pretorius, 7 Tristan Stubbs, 8 Kagiso Rabada, 9 Keshav Maharaj (c), 10 Enrique Nortje, 11 lungi ngidi
