Kingsmead is the venue for the first of four T20 Internationals between South Africa and India, the first meeting between the sides since the World Cup Final earlier this year.
This is a 4 match series with St. Georges hosting the second contest on Sunday. Centurion is the venue for the third match on Wednesday and the series concludes at The Wanderers on Friday 15th November.
Let's start with the squads.
South Africa: Aiden Markram (c), Ottneil Baartman, Gerald Coetzee, Donovan Ferreira, Reeza Hendricks, Marco Jansen, Heinrich Klaasen, Patrick Kruger, Keshav Maharaj, David Miller, Mihlali Mpongwana, Nqaba Peter, Ryan Rickelton, Andile Simelane, Lutho Sipamla, Tristan Stubbs
India: Suryakumar Yadav (C), Abhishek Sharma, Sanju Samson, Rinku Singh, Tilak Varma, Jitesh Sharma, Hardik Pandya, Axar Patel, Ramandeep Singh, Varun Chakaravarthy, Ravi Bishnoi, Arshdeep Singh, Vijaykumar Vyshak, Avesh Khan, Yash Dayal
South Africa Recent Form
The Proteas recently shared a 2 match series with Ireland 1-1, winning the first match by 8 wickets but losing the second by 10 runs and those games were played in UAE. Prior to that they were comfortably beaten by West Indies in all 3 matches in the Caribbean.
In the T20 World Cup in June South Africa topped their pool with 4 wins from 4 after coming through some tight matches against Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, the Netherlands and Nepal. The winning sequence continued in the Super 8's with wins over the USA, England and West Indies. In the semi finals the Proteas thrashed Afghanistan by 9 wickets but in what was a nerve jangling final against India they came up just short, losing by 7 runs.
India Recent Form
India went right through the T20 World Cup unbeaten, one pool match was washed out but otherwise they were foot perfect throughout tournament.
Since then they hosted Bangladesh in what proved to be a one sided series, completing a 3-0 clean sweep.
Head to Head
Overall the teams have met 27 times in this format with South Africa winning 11 to India's 15 and there has been 1 no result
The most recent series in South Africa came in December 2023, the first match (at this venue) was washed out, South Africa won the second match and India squared things up with victory in the final contest.
The Venue, Kingsmead, Durban
The Proteas have played 13 T20's at this venue, winning 5, losing 6 and no result was possible in the other 2. Aside from the abandoned clash with in December 2023 the Proteas are on a 4 match losing streak in this format at Kingsmead.
For the weather forecast click here
The Betting
At the time of writing South Africa are trading at 8/10 to win the game and India are 9/10
Markram is 7/2 to top score for South Africa and Sanju Samson is 3/1 to do likewise for India
Prices subject to change
The Verdict
The betting suggests a close contest and I'm open minded about the outcome.
For a betting interest I will give a tentative vote to Ryan Rickleton to top score for the home side on the back of a decent showing against Ireland recently.
Ramandeep Singh is a big hitter who can also bowl, he could be value in the MoM market at a big price for a small stake.
Bet: Top SA run scorer Rickleton at 4/1 with Sportingbet
Player of the match, Ramandeep Singh at 20/1 with Sportingbet
