The third ODI between South Africa and England will be played at Cape Town on Friday. The first game at Wanderers in Johannesburg had been rained off, whereas England won the second game at Centurion - rather easily at that.

England had surprised everyone in the second game by first restricting the South Africans to a lowly total of 250 on a pitch that should have seen many more runs. Then, batting against the Proteas bowlers, the English batsmen, Jonathin Trott and Paul Collingwood made a mockery of the attack despite having lost a couple of early wickets.

The South Africans will come back all guns blazing. However, they have multiple problems and hence, how they overcome those problems will be an interesting watch. One had already seen how the Aussies overcame issues with the injuries in the series against India and went on to win the series; a hallmark of a true champion. South Africa has already lost Jacques Kallis for the series. Apart from that, the hosts are also struggling with the bowling line-up. Albie Morkel continues to leak away runs, whereas the bigger issue comes from their premiem pace bowler Dale Steyn, someone who has bowled moderately well. However, he has conceded the big runs at crucial junctures in the game.

Johan Botha was dropped from the previous game, but one doesn't see him remain out of the side for long. He should be back into the third ODI at Cape Town.

The batting line-up now will depend heavily on the captain Graeme Smith for the functioning. Despite half centuries from Hashim Amla and Alviro Petersen in the previous game, it needs the runs from the captain who bats much more aggressively than anyone else and hence takes the games away. Herschelle Gibbs has been drafted into the side and could be an option for the side.

For England, one does not see a lot of changes to the side. The opening combination was changed around to get in Jonathon Trott at the top and it worked wonders. Trott has been known to be an aggressive batsman in the county level, and shown his maturity to convert his first class form into international form. This has given Strauss options, and allowed his all-rounders in Collingwood and Luke Wright to come down the order with the ability to smash around in the batting powerplay.

All in all, the English side looks more settled than their South African counterparts, but the hosts have the tenacity in them to bounce back.

Tag :- Albie Morkel   England   Graeme Smith   Herschelle Gibbs   Jacques Kallis   Luke Wright   Paul Collingwood   South Africa