South Africa won the toss and elected to bat first vs England
Quinton de Kock opted to “put the English under pressure first,” and asked Eoin Morgan’s men to chase in the series decider at SuperSport Park.
With matters level at 1-1, de Kock put faith in his attack, bolstered by the return of Dale Steyn, to defend in warm conditions in front of a full house.
Steyn, who replaced left-armer Beuran Hendricks, was one of two changes to the home XI. Jon-Jon Smuts was benched in favour of home boy Heinrich Klaasen, who will not be keeping wicket.
England had an enforced change with Joe Denly unable to play because of illness and Dawid Malan making his first appearance on the tour. The visitors are ending the tour as they began it – with players struggling with their health on the Highveld. Morgan was concerned with the frequency of poor health among the group and said it was something England need to look into on their travels.
Malan was carded to bat at No. 4. He has never batted outside of the top three in T20Is, but batted in the middle order during his recent Bangladesh Premier League stint. Jos Buttler was set to continue at the top of the order, with Morgan asserting after the second game in Durban: “We believe him, Jason [Roy] and Jonny [Bairstow] are our top three at the moment, moving forward.”
South Africa: 1 Quinton de Kock (captain, wk), 2 Temba Bavuma, 3 Rassie van der Dussen, 4 Heinrich Klaasen, 5 David Miller, 6 Andile Phehlukwayo, 7 Dwaine Pretorius, 8 Dale Steyn, 9 Bjorn Fortuin, 10 Tabraiz Shamsi, 11 Lungi Ngidi
England: 1 Jason Roy, 2 Jos Buttler (wk), 3 Jonny Bairstow, 4 Dawid Malan, 5 Eoin Morgan (captain), 6 Ben Stokes, 7 Moeen Ali, 8 Tom Curran, 9 Chris Jordan, 10 Adil Rashid, 11 Mark Wood
Firdose Moonda is ESPNcricinfo’s South Africa correspondent
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