South Africa will look to give a victorious farewell to Makhaya Ntini, when they face India in the one off T20 international at the Moses Mabhida Stadium in Durban on Sunday, January 9, 2011. This will be the last time where Ntini will take the pitch donning South African colors. The match will also mark the 150th anniversary of the arrival of Indian workers to Natal.
This should be a great game. However, India has lost both its openers and should go for a make shift opening pair. Virendar Sehwag has been rested owing to shoulder trouble and with the World Cup in mind. Gautam Gambhir was also injured during the third Test and has been rested for the limited overs games.
South Africa will want revenge. They have never beaten India in a T20 international at home and the defeat and the manner of it in the 2007 T20 World Cup, would still be rankling. They have their best line up available and should be the favorites for this game.
However, India will be boosted by the return of Sachin Tendulkar to the limited overs side. He hasn’t played a single One Day International since that epic knock against the same opposition at Gwalior and his last T20 game was the final of the third edition of the Indian Premier League.
The bowling should be the key here. Dale Steyn and Morne Morkel have been rested after a thoroughly draining series and South Africa will have to rely on the T20 specialists. Johan Botha will return to captain the side along with the likes of Colin Ingram, David Miller and Rusty Theron.
India have their best possible bowling attack. Ashish Nehra and Praveen Kumar have returned to the side along with Piyush Chawla who gets a chance after four years. It will be interesting to see if he gets the nod ahead of Ravichandran Ashwin.
Durban has got a strong ethnic Indian base and the support should be even for both the teams. South Africa are slightly ahead of India but if the Indian batting clicks, then there is no bowler in the South African ranks to stop it.