Sanju Samson hits maiden ODI century during the third ODI between India and South Africa

Team India will be playing without Ruturaj Gaikwad as the opening batsman missed due to a finger injury. Rajat Patidar made his debut in place of the injured Gaikwad.

New Delhi: Indian wicketkeeper-batsman Sanju Samson hit a maiden century during the India vs South Africa 3rd ODI at Eurolux Boland Park in Paarl on Thursday. The wicketkeeper batsman smashed 108 runs in 114 balls.

Team India will be playing without Ruturaj Gaikwad as the opening batsman missed due to a finger injury. Rajat Patidar made his debut in place of the injured Gaikwad.

Earlier, South African captain Aiden Markram won the toss and elected to bowl first against India in the third and final ODI of the three-match series.

During the toss, Markram said: ‘We’ll go bowling first. Looks like a good wicket, won’t change much. We want to keep challenging ourselves, hopefully we can take wickets regularly and keep them down to a low total. One last push for most of the boys for a nice break, we’re going to do our best. Expect more of the same as in the second ODI. The dimensions are certainly different here, so running between wickets will be key. No changes.”

India skipper KL Rahul said, “Not really. The wicket will be the same for both innings and the lights come on quite late here. We put ourselves in a good position but ended up losing 5 wickets for about 40 runs. Once we get a good start, we have to make it count. Today is another opportunity for the boys to prove themselves.”

South Africa (playing XI): Reeza Hendricks, Tony de Zorzi, Rassie van der Dussen, Aiden Markram(c), Heinrich Klaasen(w), David Miller, Wiaan Mulder, Keshav Maharaj, Nandre Burger, Lizaad Williams and Beuran Hendricks.

India (playing XI): Sai Sudharsan, Sanju Samson, Rajat Patidar, Tilak Varma, KL Rahul (w/c), Rinku Singh, Washington Sundar, Axar Patel, Arshdeep Singh, Avesh Khan and Mukesh Kumar.