South Africa won the toss and decided to bowl against Australia
Faf du Plessis won his second toss of the series and opted to bowl in Adelaide. With rumours of dew in the evening, du Plessis explained his decision by saying that South Africa wanted to keep the pressure on Australia’s top order by asking them to set a total once again.
Australia, seven games deep in a losing streak, were rolled over for 152 in the opening ODI in Perth, but their batting will be buoyed by the return of Shaun Marsh, who missed the first ODI following minor surgery for an abscess on his buttocks. He returns to No. 3 as one of Australia’s most in-form one-day batsmen of recent times following the tour of England earlier this year where he made two centuries. Australia also swapped Nathan Coulter-Nile for legspinner Adam Zampa in their playing XI
There was also one change for the visitors, and it was a tactical rather than an enforced one. Du Plessis mentioned yesterday that finding the right balance in their XI was one of the key outcomes of their time in Australia, and with that in mind South Africa have changed a bowling allrounder for a batting one in their starting line-up. Dwaine Pretorius replaces Andile Phehlukwayo, who took three wickets in the opening win, and will likely bat at no. 7.
Australia 1 Aaron Finch (capt), 2 Travis Head, 3 Shaun Marsh, 4 Chris Lynn, 5 Glenn Maxwell, 6 Marcus Stoinis, 7 Alex Carey (wk), 8 Mitchell Starc, 9 Pat Cummins, 10 Adam Zampa, 11 Josh Hazlewood
South Africa 1 Quinton de Kock (wk), 2 Reeza Hendricks, 3 Aiden Markram, 4 Faf du Plessis (capt), 5 David Miller, 6 Heinrich Klaasen, 7 Dwaine Pretorius, 8 Dale Steyn, 9 Kagiso Rabada, 10 Lungi Ngidi, 11 Imran Tahir