Match: South Africa v Australia, 1st ODI
Date: 30 September, Friday
Time: 7:30pm SGT/5pm IST/12:30 pm BST
Venue: SuperSport Park, Centurion
TV Channel: In Singapore, there is no live coverage of the 1st ODI between South Africa and Australia
Overview
South Africa host Australia in the first One Day International of the five-match series at the SuperSport Park in Centurion on 30 September.
Skipper AB de Villiers will miss the ODI series against Steve Smith's side after suffering an elbow injury. The right-handed batsman failed a fitness test on Tuesday and is expected to undergo a surgery. He will also miss South Africa's three-match Test series in Australia in November.
In his absence, Faf du Plessis will lead the side in what promises to be an exciting contest between two top-quality sides. South Africa, who failed to reach the finals of tri-series involving Australia and West Indies in June resumed their ODI action against Ireland on 25 September with a resounding 206-run win at home.
The Proteas will be boosted by the availability of pace spearhead Dale Steyn for the series. He will join the likes of Kagiso Rabada, Wayne Parnell and 27-year-old fast bowler Dwaine Pretorius in the pace battery which will be without injured Chris Morris. Imran Tahir will be the lone spinner in the side.
At the top, South Africa have in-form wicketkeeper-batsman Quinton De Kock, who will partner with the experienced Hashim Amla. With De Villiers missing out, JP Duminy and David Miller will have to take up additional responsibility in the middle-order.
Australia, on the other hand, will miss the services of Mitchell Starc and Josh Hazlewood, as both the pacers have been rested for the tour. Newly-appointed bowling coach Ryan Harris will have to manage the workload between John Hastings, Scott Bolland and newcomers Chris Tremaine and Daniel Worrall.
However, Smith's unit have full ammunition in their batting line-up. Coach Darren Lehmann will have selection headaches when it comes to choosing his two openers from the pool that consists of David Warner, Aaron Finch and in-form Usman Khawaja. Playing all the three batsmen at the top might also work in favour of them.
Smith will look to lead from the front with the bat on pace-rich South African tracks while George Bailey's role in the batting line-up will prove crucial as the visitors are short of experience in the middle order.
All-rounder Mitchell Marsh and spinner Adam Zampa will look to seal their places in the ODI squad with strong showing in South Africa.
The SuperSport Park will offer a good track for the batsmen to play their shots and at the same time will have enough bounce for the bowlers to exploit.
The visitors will be banking on the explosive opening combination of Warner and Finch to deliver the goods for them in the first ODI. A win on Friday will give the in-form Australian unit enough confidence to set their sights on winning what could prove to be a testing series for them.
TV Schedule
Australia: Fox Sports Australia
South Africa: Super Sport Two
India: Ten 2
UK: Sky Sports
US: Willow TV
Team News
South Africa
Possible XI: Faf Du Plessis (c), Hashim Amla, Quinton de Kock (wk), Farhaan Behardien, JP Duminy, David Miller, Wayne Parnell, Imran Tahir, Dale Steyn, Kagiso Rabada, Dwaine Pretorius
Australia
Possible XI: Steve Smith (c), David Warner, Usman Khawaja, Aaron Finch, George Bailey, Mitchell Marsh, Matthew Wade (wk), Adam Zampa, John Hastings, Daniel Worrall, Scott Boland
