Toss Zimbabwe opted to bat v South Africa
Zimbabwe captain Hamilton Masakadza won his first toss of the series and opted to bat in the third and final ODI against South Africa at Boland Park in Paarl.
South Africa have already wrapped up the series 2-0 after victories in Kimberley and Bloemfontein. The scorecards show that the hosts had won by five wickets and 120 runs, but in neither game was their batting entirely convincing.
The return of captain Faf du Plessis will bolster an as yet unproven top order. Du Plessis missed the end of South Africa’s tour of Sri Lanka in August this year with a rotator cuff tear in his right shoulder. It had been thought that du Plessis would miss all three ODIs, but he recovered faster than the medical team had expected.
His return necessitated a reshuffle in South Africa’s line-up, along with two further changes. Christiaan Jonker, Dean Elgar and Lungi Ngidi made way for du Plessis, Kagiso Rabada and Tabraiz Shamsi. The hosts will thus have a new partnership at the top of the order, with Reeza Hendricks moving up to open with Aiden Markram, and a potentially exciting combination with the ball.
Shamsi and Imran Tahir may well bowl in tandem this afternoon, though there may not be quite as much turn in the pitch as they would like. Zimbabwe, on the other hand, named an unchanged XI.
The Paarl track looked smooth, with a good grass covering and very few cracks. It was a hard surface, but there haven’t been many hot days in the Cape recently, so there could be some moisture under the pitch, meaning that it could be a little on the slow side.
South Africa: 1 Aiden Markram, 2 Reeza Hendricks, 3 Faf du Plessis (capt), 4 JP Duminy, 5 Heinrich Klaasen (wk), 6 Khaya Zondo, 7 Andile Phehlukwayo, 8 Dale Steyn, 9 Kagiso Rabada, 10 Imran Tahir, 11 Tabraiz Shamsi
Zimbabwe: 1 Hamilton Masakadza (capt), 2 Solomon Mire, 3 Craig Ervine, 4 Brendan Taylor(wk), 5 Sean Williams, 6 Peter Moor, 7 Elton Chigumbura, 8 Brandon Mavuta, 9 Donald Tiripano, 10 Kyle Jarvis, 11 Tendai Chatara