What

The fourth of the five One-Day Internationals between India and South Africa. The match is a Day/Night affair.

When

January 21, 2011. The game begins at 6 pm, IST.

Where

St George’s Park, Port Elizabeth. This is India’s first game at this venue on this tour. The wicket at St George’s Park is said to favour spin bowling but there have been some memorable fast bowling and batting performances on this track as well.

The Teams

South Africa are under pressure. They have never lost a home series to India. At the core of their problems lies the form of their batsmen, particularly the middle order. Apart from Graeme Smith, JP Duminy and Faf du Plessis (who has played just one game), no other South African batsman boasts of a batting average of beyond 35.00 in this series.

Equally acute have been the hosts’ fourth and fifth bowling options. Johan Botha has conceded runs at 5.30 per over, taking only two wickets in 24.2 overs; Wayne Parnell has had an economy rate of 5.50 run per over and has only one wicket to show for the 22 overs he has bowled in this series. Albie Morkel, named as a replacement for David Miller in the last two ODIs, could come in for Parnell in the fourth ODI.

India are ahead in this series, but not by much. Both their victories have come in closely contested games. If the South African batting looks fragile, then India’s has fared much worse with only Yusuf Pathan, Yuvraj Singh and Virat Kohli having posted half-centuries.

It is the bowlers, particularly Harbhajan Singh, Munaf Patel and Zaheer Khan, who having accounted for 19 of the hosts’ wickets between them, that have given India the edge in the series. The same, though, cannot be said of Ashish Nehra. The lanky left-arm seamer has leaked runs at 7.35 per over. In this light, it won’t be surprising if the think tank opts to replace Nehra with another pacer. They might, perhaps, even play Piyush Chawla ahead of Nehra given St George’s assistance to spinners and the hosts’ vulnerability against the same.

India have never won a one-day game at Port Elizabeth. A maiden victory here would fetch them that elusive ODI series win in South Africa.

Venue quick stats

South Africa: Played – 25, Won – 16, Lost – 8, Tied – 0, NR - 1

India: Played – 4, Won – 0, Lost – 4, Tied – 0, NR - 0

Highest Total: Pakistan 335/6 in 50 overs v South Africa – December 11, 2002

Lowest Total: New Zealand 112 in 30.1 overs v Australia – March 11, 2003

Best Individual score:Saleem Elahi (Pakistan) 135 v South Africa – December 11, 2002

Best bowling figures in an innings:Andy Bichel (Australia) 10-0-20-7 v England – March 2, 2003

Probable playing XIs:

India: Mahendra Singh Dhoni (c & wk), Murali Vijay/Parthiv Patel, Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, Yuvraj Singh, Yusuf Pathan, Suresh Raina, Harbhajan Singh, Munaf Patel, Zaheer Khan and Ashish Nehra/Sreesanth/Piyush Chawla

South Africa: Graeme Smith (c), Hashim Amla, JP Duminy, AB de Villiers (wk), Colin Ingram, Faf du Plessis, Johan Botha, WayneParnell/Albie Morkel, Morne Morkel, Dale Steyn and Lonwabo Tsotsobe.