India prepare to stave off series loss

The loss in the first T20I must have been a jolt for the Indian team. The scorecard at the halfway stage suggested that they were favourites but AB de Villiers and JP Duminy pulled off quite a heist at Dharamsala. As the bandwagon moves on to the eastern side of India in Cuttack, MS Dhoni's men will be hoping for a shift in tide as well. The new ground will offer different challenges and newer members as is par for the course. India will be under a little more pressure purely because there is a chance of

losing the series with this game.

Venue: Barabati Stadium, Cuttack

Date: 5th October, 2015

Time: 07:00 PM Local Time

India

Rohit Sharma's splendid ton in the first game masked a few of the possible chinks in the batting armour. Virat Kohli proved to be an excellent foil for the opener as well. After the duo fell in quick succession, there was a slight blip in the finish when Raina and Rayudu fell cheaply. India will need the duo to shore them up in the end overs, along with MS Dhoni.

The spinners, especially Axar Patel, will be under tremendous pressure going into the second game. The left-arm spinner is bound to keep his spot though. Dhoni mentioned that he was quite happy with the way Axar bowled except for one over where he was smashed for three sixes. The pace department did not produce anything of note, and the lack of bite early in the innings is a cause of concern for India.

Probable XI: Rohit Sharma, Shikhar Dhawan, Virat Kohli, Suresh Raina, MS Dhoni, Ambati Rayudu, Axar Patel, Ravichandran Ashwin, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Mohit Sharma, Sreenath Aravind

South Africa

Despite cruising to victory in the first game, South Africa will still be looking at areas to improve upon. The first of that would of course be the bowling. Conceding 199 was something of a sour note for the Proteas. They were put under tremendous pressure in the middle overs and they will do well to consider an additional spinner for the Cuttack game. It will provide Faf du Plessis an option to control the game better. On the other hand, it could also be something that the Indians would prefer.

The batting unit did extremely well to chase down a stiff target. The class of AB de Villiers and Hashim Amla right at the top was evident when they put on a 77-run opening stand at breakneck speed, without breaking sweat. JP Duminy's finishing prowess came to the fore later in the game and the line-up is surely up there amongst the best in the format currently.

Probable XI: AB de Villiers, Hashim Amla, Faf du Plessis, JP Duminy, Farhaan Behardien, David Miller, Kyle Abbott, Chris Morris, Marchant de Lange, Eddie Leie, Imran Tahir

Quotes:

We have to play to the South Africans' weakness. We know they are not so good against the spinners - Rohit Sharma believes there is room for a third spinner in the line-up

I prepared specifically for a lot of spin. It's their advantage that they have a lot of spinners and we haveto counter that with some good batting - Farhaan Behardien has his own plans