Both teams have retained the same lineups from SuperSport Park, showcasing India s faith in their specialist spinners despite conditions favoring seamers.

Varun Chakravarthy leads the wicket-takers with 10 scalps, twice as many as Arshdeep Singh. Ravi Bishnoi and Gerald Coetzee follow with four wickets each.

South Africa have persisted initially with a four-seam attack, yet witnessed inconsistencies. Gerald Coetzee and Lutho Sipamla were expensive in the previous match, but Sipamla may draw confidence from his player-of-the-match performance in a domestic final at this venue. Keshav Maharaj remains the sole specialist spinner.

Notably, Donovan Ferreira, Patrick Kruger, Ottneil Baartman, and Mihlali Mpongwana have been omitted, while India have not utilized Jitesh Sharma, Yash Dayal, or Vijaykumar Vyshak.

A win would secure India s fifth consecutive bilateral series victory this year, adding to their impressive 23-2 record in the format in 2024.

South Africa: 1 Ryan Rickelton (wk), 2 Reeza Hendricks, 3 Aiden Markram (capt), 4 Tristan Stubbs, 5 Heinrich Klaasen (wk), 6 David Miller, 7 Marco Jansen, 8 Gerald Coetzee, 9 Andile Simelane, 10 Keshav Maharaj, 11 Lutho Sipamla

India: 1 Sanju Samson (wk), 2 Abhishek Sharma, 3 Tilak Varma, 4 Suryakumar Yadav (capt), 5 Hardik Pandya, 6 Rinku Singh, 7 Ramandeep Singh, 8 Axar Patel, 9 Arshdeep Singh, 10 Ravi Bishnoi, 11 Varun Chakravarthy.