du Plessis Debut as South Africa Opt to Bat at Newlands

Cape Town: South African captain Graeme Smith won the toss and chose to bat against India in the third ODI at Newlands in Cape Town on Tuesday.

Indian batting has come a cropper in both the matches so far and the visitors managed to pull off an incredible victory at the Wanderers on Saturday mainly because of the efforts of the bowlers, especially pacer Munaf Patel.

The Indians have suffered a big jolt with Sachin Tendulkar returning home because of a hamstring injury, further weakening the batting line-up which has plenty of talent but has not come to terms with the pacy tracks in South Africa yet.

Tendulkar's injury has added to India's cup of woes as three key players -- Virender Sehwag, Gautam Gambhir and Praveen Kumar -- have already been ruled out of the series due to injuries.

South Africa have replaced David Miller with allrounder Faf du Plessis. MS Dhoni said that Rohit Sharma will open the batting and Yusuf Pathan will bat in the lower order.

Teams

South Africa: Graeme Smith (capt), Hashim Amla, Colin Ingram, AB de Villiers (wk), JP Duminy, 6 Faf du Plessis, Johan Botha, Dale Steyn, Wayne Parnell, Morne Morkel, Lonwabo Tsotsobe

India: Murali Vijay, Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, Yuvraj Singh, Suresh Raina, Yusuf Pathan, MS Dhoni (capt & wk), Harbhajan Singh, Munaf Patel, Zaheer Khan, Ashish Nehra

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