Johanesburg, September 28: The toss hasn’t been Ricky Ponting’s friend of late but the coin came down on the right side at Centurion, where he chose to bat against India.
In a match that is essentially an elimination final for India, MS Dhoni’s men made two changes and strengthened their bowling after a below-par performance against Pakistan.
Yusuf Pathan made way for Praveen Kumar to come into the side and the spin stocks were improved with Amit Mishra replacing RP Singh. Mishra is lining up for his first one-day international for six-and-a-half years and will form a spin duo with Harbhajan Singh.
For Australia, Michael Clarke did not prove fit after missing the opening encounter against West Indies and remains unavailable due to his stiff back. Australia made no changes for a match that, should they win, will put them through to the semi-finals.
Australia: 1 Shane Watson, 2 Tim Paine (wk), 3 Ricky Ponting (capt), 4 Michael Hussey, 5 Callum Ferguson 6 Cameron White, 7 James Hopes, 8 Mitchell Johnson, 9 Brett Lee, 10 Nathan Hauritz, 11 Peter Siddle.
India: 1 Gautam Gambhir, 2 Sachin Tendulkar, 3 Rahul Dravid, 4 Virat Kohli, 5 MS Dhoni (capt/wk), 6 Suresh Raina, 7 Praveen Kumar, 8 Harbhajan Singh, 9 Amit Mishra, 10 Ishant Sharma, 11 Ashish Nehra.
—–Agencies