What

The fifth and final ODI between India and South Africa – the all-important series decider.

When

January 23, 2011. The game begins at 1:30 pm, IST.

Where

SuperSport Park, Centurion. India had lost to South Africa in the first Test match at this venue. The pitches here are known to be quicker with no assistance to the spinners. With the ball coming on to the bat, the batsmen have enough opportunity to score runs.

The Teams

The series stands perfectly poised at 2-2 calling to mind the final match of the Test series earlier in the tour.

The Indians will look to rewrite the record books by winning an ODI series for the first time in the Rainbow Nation while the hosts would be keen to keep their record intact.

The Proteas, and their skipper Graeme Smith, have good memories at this ground. The South African captain holds the record for the most runs here (840) at an average of 64.61 and highest score of 141.

The hosts boast of an excellent pace attack on a wicket that will assist fast bowlers. With the likes of Morne Morkel, Dale Steyn and Lonwabo Tsotsobe in their ranks, the South Africans would be a confident lot.

However, they still need their batsmen to click and the duo of Zaheer Khan-Munaf Patel cannot be underestimated.

The Indian batsmen too need to come good, especially the middle-order, as captain MS Dhoni rightly pointed out after going down in the rain-marred fourth ODI.

JP Duminy and Virat Kohli are holding the torch in the middle-order of their respective teams but they have got little support from their celebrated fellow batsmen.

Indian skipper MS Dhoni is on the verge of pulling yet another rabbit of his bag even without the services of his top three batsmen – Sachin Tendulkar, Virender Sehwag and Gautam Gambhir.

But the South Africans have shown they are just as committed to pulling off a series win to round off a summer of top-notch cricket. A finale of truly great potential awaits.

Venue quick stats

South Africa: Played – 26, Won – 17, Lost – 9, Tied – 0, NR – 0

India: Played – 9, Won – 4, Lost – 4, Tied – 0, NR – 1

Highest Total: South Africa 392/6 in 50 overs v Pakistan - February 04, 2007

Lowest Total: Zimbabwe 119 in 34.3 overs v South Africa - November 10, 2009

Best Individual score: David John Callaghan (South Africa) 169* v New Zealand - December 11, 1994

Best bowling figures in an innings: David Johnston (Ireland) 10-4-14-5 v Canada - April 19, 2009

Probable playing XIs:

India: Mahendra Singh Dhoni (c & wk), 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, Robin Peterson, Morne Morkel, Dale Steyn and Lonwabo Tsotsobe