Johannesburg, April 22 (IANS) India have brought in Bharti Fulmali and Kashvee Gautam as South Africa won the toss and elected to bowl first in the third women’s T20I at the Wanderers Stadium in Johannesburg on Wednesday.

India find themselves under pressure as they are 2-0 behind in the five-match series. Wednesday’s game is a must-win contest for India if they are to keep the series alive. The toss was delayed by 45 minutes due to rain and lightning around the stadium area, but there’s no deduction in overs.

India skipper Harmanpreet Kaur said Bharti and Kashvee come in the playing eleven in place of Sree Charani and Anushka Sharma. Bharti last played T20Is for India in the 2019 series against England in Guwahati.

“Definitely would have bowled first, looking at the conditions. But I think when we came here, we were talking about putting ourselves into hard conditions, and I think that’s a great challenge for us to bat, and hopefully we also bat well. I think doing our basics right. I think the last two games we didn’t do that.

“I think just doing the small, small things right always gives a result. I think other than that, we are not putting any pressure on ourselves. I know it’s an important game, but at the same time, we just want to enjoy ourselves on the field,” she said.

South Africa captain Laura Wolvaardt said Annerie Dercksen and Anneke Bosch are missing out, with Kayla Reyneke and Ayanda Hlubi coming into the playing eleven. “Obviously, we’ve had a bit of rain around. We’ve been under covers for a few days, so we’d just like to have a bowl first. We’ve had two great games, but I know India is a high-quality side, so they’re definitely going to bring their best game today.

“So we will have to tick all our boxes once again. There’s always going to be things to improve. I think we’ve been good in phases and we’ve got the wins, but we’re still searching for sort of that perfect game. I think our fielding’s been good, but not 100 percent clean. There are always things to nitpick, I guess, before a World Cup, so just consistency is what we’re searching for,” she said.

Playing XIs:

India: Shafali Verma, Smriti Mandhana, Jemimah Rodrigues, Harmanpreet Kaur (captain), Bharti Fulmali, Richa Ghosh (wk), Deepti Sharma, Kashvee Gautam, Shreyanka Patil, Kranti Gaud, and Arundhati Reddy

South Africa: Laura Wolvaardt (captain), Sune Luus, Tazmin Brits, Annerie Dercksen, Kayla Reyneke, Chloe Tryon, Nadine de Klerk, Sinalo Jafta (wk), Ayanda Hlubi, Tumi Sekhukhune, and Nonkululeko Mlaba

–IANS

nr/bsk/