South Africa chose to bowl v India
Without Marizanne Kapp, who is recovering from illness, Ayabonga Khaka will lead the pace attack with Tumi Sekhukhune, Annerie Dercksen and Nadine de Klerk in the pace pack. Ayanda Hlubi has not found a spot at her home ground but left-arm spinner Nonkululekho Mlaba will headline the spin contingent. Chloe Tryon and Sune Luus will make up the rest of the attack. Kayla Reyneke, who bowls offspin, has been ruled out of the match with flu. South Africa men’s left-arm spinner Keshav Maharaj is in the dugout, assisting with spin bowling for the Durban games.
That also meant that South Africa had to juggle their batting line-up. Anneke Bosch was carded at No.5, with Laura Wolvaardt and Sune Luus to open. Wolvaardt returns to the top of the order with Tazmin Brits at No.3.
A much more settled Indian side will not mind batting first with a powerhouse line-up. Smriti Mandhana, Shafali Verma, Jemimah Rodrigues, Harmanpreet Kaur and Richa Ghosh make up a strong top five. There’s a debut for seamer Kashvee Gautam, who was in the squad after a back injury to Amanjot Kaur, who is not on this tour. India have included two other quicks in Arundhati Reddy and Renuka Thakur.
It is expected to get better to bat on as the game goes on.
South Africa: 1 Laura Wolvaardt (capt), 2 Sune Luus, 3 Tazmin Brits, 4 Annerie Dercksen, 5 Anneke Bosch, 6 Chloe Tryon, 7 Nadine de Klerk, 8 Sinalo Jafta (wk), 9 Ayabonga Khaka, 10 Tumi Sekhukhune, 11 Nonkululekho Mlaba
India: 1 Smriti Mandhana, 2 Shafali Verma, 3 Jemimah Rodrigues, 4 Harmanpreet Kaur (capt), 5 Richa Ghosh, 6 Deepti Sharma, 7 Arundhati Reddy, 8 Kashvee Gautam, 9 Shreyanka Patil, 10 Shree Charani, 11 Renuka Thakur
