India win toss, elect to bat against Proteas

NAGPUR: India captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni elected to bat after winning the toss against South Africa in a key World Cup Group B match on Saturday.

Both teams are already virtually assured of quarter-final places.

India made one change from the side that beat the Netherlands by five wickets in the previous match in Delhi, bringing in seamer Munaf Patel in place of leg-spinner Piyush Chawla.

South Africa replaced injured leg-spinner Imran Tahir with off-spinner Johan Botha for the only change from the team that lost to England by six runs in Chennai.

India currently top the seven-team group with seven points from four games, while South Africa have four points from three matches.

A win will guarantee a last-eight place for India.

India: Mahendra Singh Dhoni (captain), Virender Sehwag, Gautam Gambhir, Sachin
Tendulkar, Virat Kohli, Yuvraj Singh, Yusuf Pathan, Harbhajan Singh, Zaheer Khan, Ashish Nehra, Munaf Patel.

South Africa: Graeme Smith (captain), Hashim Amla, Johan Botha, AB de Villiers, JP Duminy, Faf du Plessis, Jacques Kallis, Morne Morkel, Robin Peterson, Dale Steyn, Morne van Wyk.

Umpires: Ian Gould (ENG) and Simon Taufel (AUS), TV umpire: Billy Doctrove (WI)
Match referee: Ranjan Madugalle (SL)