India vs South Africa, 5th ODI: Visitors Renew Pursuit Of History

India will resume their hunt for glory on South African soil as they face the hosts in the fifth One-day International (ODI) at St George's Park in Port Elizabeth on Tuesday. India's pursuit of a maiden ODI series triumph in South Africa was derailed briefly as the hosts fought back brilliantly to win the fourth ODI in Johannesburg. India, who lead the six-match series 3-1, lost by five wickets in the rain-curtailed 'Pink ODI'. India's wrist-spinners versus South Africa's batting line-up will still be the key battle in the remaining two ODIs in the series.

At Johannesburg, the dual rain intervention affected India's momentum with both the bat and ball.

More importantly, it reduced the target sufficiently that, despite AB de Villiers' relative early dismissal, the home batsmen didn't have much trouble getting past.

The T20-mode of the second innings, coupled with the best batting surface of the series, allowed David Miller and Heinrich Klaasen to attack the Yuzvendra Chahal and Kuldeep Yadav to take the game away from India.

The dropped catch and castling Miller off a no ball didn't help India's cause either. Yet, a rain-truncated innings is hardly enough evidence that South Africa have learnt how to contend with the wrist spin of Chahal and Kuldeep.

Additionally, Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Jasprit Bumrah were not used to great effect as Virat Kohli chose to rely on the spinners, even when they were unable to respond to the Proteas' attack.

In this light, India's team selection will come into focus in Port Elizabeth. There are still question marks about the fitness of Kedar Jadhav, who suffered a hamstring injury in Cape Town and missed the previous game.

Albeit a part-timer, in his absence, India lose a reliable bowling alternative particularly if Hardik Pandya takes some stick and cannot complete his quota of overs.

Jadhav is adept at bowling slow spin, and mixing it up well with Chahal and Kuldeep. India do not have many fall-back options in Jadhav's absence -- Rohit Sharma last bowled an ODI over at Perth in January 2016.

Shreyas Iyer is known to practice leg break and had bowled an over against Sri Lanka in his debut series.

Neither of them provides a reliable option like Jadhav does. Kohli himself is the other contender, but he bowls seam-up.

Ajinkya Rahane has scored 11 and 8 since making a comeback 79 at no.4. Pandya's forgettable tour with the bat (since the first Test in early January) continues, with scores of 14 and 9 in his last two outings.

MS Dhoni's 42 not out (off 43 balls) was the only saving grace for this shaky middle-order as India struggled to finish well at Johannesburg.

The series' score-line has conveniently hid the fact that India have a top-heavy batting order, despite the poor form of Rohit Sharma, who has scored 40 runs in the first four ODIs and boasts a gradually sinking ODI average of 11.45 in 12 matches on South African soil.

Kohli (393 runs) and Shikhar Dhawan (271 runs) have scored nearly thrice the number of runs put together by the remaining batsmen (239) and it ought to be a cause of major worry for the Indian think-tank.

This fact will not go overlooked and South Africa will be keen to exploit the Indian line-up's frailty and dismiss Kohli and Dhawan cheaply to gain an early advantage.

It remains to be seen what bowling combination the hosts will go in with. On a hard and bouncy Wanderers' wicket, they had dropped a full-time spinner altogether, relying solely on JP Duminy to do that job.

St. George's Park though has a history of aiding spinners and in the last two ODIs played here, the Proteas' spinners have been in prominence. In January 2017, Imran Tahir took 3-26 against Sri Lanka.

In October 2016, Tabraiz Shamsi picked up 3-36 against Australia while South Africa also picked a second spinner in Aaron Phangiso who took 2-17.

South Africa have lost 11 out of 32 matches played at this ground. Six of those losses have come in the last decade as Port Elizabeth hosts at least one ODI every home summer.

India's record here is nothing to write about either.

They have lost all 5 ODIs played here since 1992.

Four of those defeats came against South Africa, while the Men in Blue even managed to lose to Kenya here during the one-day triangular as part of their 2001-02 tour.

In fact, in five previous ODI outings in Port Elizabeth, India have never scored 200 runs here as 176 against South Africa in October 2001 is their highest total yet.

Once again on this trip, India will have to fight dubious past performances and erase a lop-sided record, only this time in a bid to carve out a fresh piece of history.

Squads:

India: Virat Kohli (capt), Shikhar Dhawan, Rohit Sharma, Ajinkya Rahane, Shreyas Iyer, Manish Pandey, Dinesh Karthik, Kedar Jadhav, MS Dhoni (wk), Hardik Pandya, Yuzvendra Chahal, Kuldeep Yadav, Axar Patel, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Shami, Shardul Thakur.

South Africa: Aiden Markram (capt), Hashim Amla, JP Duminy, Imran Tahir, David Miller, Morne Morkel, Chris Morris, Lungisani Ngidi, Andile Phehlukwayo, Kagiso Rabada, Tabraiz Shamsi, Khayelihle Zondo, Farhaan Behardien, Heinrich Klaasen (wk), AB de Villiers.

(With PTI Inputs)