Toss South Africa chose to bowl first vs England
While the hosts are looking to seal the series 3-0 and further bolster their hopes of qualifying directly for this year’s World Cup, England will want to avoid losing six straight ODIs for the first time since 2009 as they build towards their World Cup defence.
“The ground generally is quite a hard to defend on with short, straight boundaries,” Bavuma explained as South Africa made three changes to the side which won by five wickets on Sunday.
Tabraiz Shamsi and Sisanda Magala – player of the match with his 3 for 46 in the opening game – also come into the side with Anrich Nortje and Keshav Maharaj missing out.
Skipper Jos Buttler revealed he would also have opted to bowl first: “We would have chased as well but I haven’t had much luck with the toss,” Buttler said. “We’re disappointed to have lost the series but have lots to play for today.”
Play was set to begin in sweltering conditions but with cloud cover building to the west.
South Africa: 1 Reeza Hendricks, 2 Temba Bavuma (capt), Rassie van der Dussen, 4 Aiden Markram, 5 Heinrich Klaasen (wk), 6 David Miller, 7 Marco Jansen, 8 Wayne Parnell, 9 Sisanda Magala, 10 Lungi Ngidi, 11 Tabraiz Shamsi
England: 1 Jason Roy, 2 Dawid Malan, 3 Ben Duckett, 4 Harry Brook, 5 Jos Buttler (capt & wk), 6 Moeen Ali, 7 Sam Curran, 8 Chris Woakes, 9 Adil Rashid, 10 Jofra Archer, 11 Reece Topley