Dhoni ruled out of series decider

Third Test, Cape Town: South Africa v India
Scorecard


India suffered a blow to their chances of winning their Test series in South Africa when Mahendra Dhoni was ruled out of the final match in Cape Town.

The wicket-keeper/batsman failed to recover from a hand injury and was replaced by Dinesh Karthik.

The tourists also brought in seamer Munaf Patel for VRV Singh but chose to bat first after winning the toss.

South Africa made three changes, bringing in Jacques Kallis, Dale Steyn and debutant Paul Harris.

Kallis (back) and Steyn (thigh) were passed fit after missing the second Test at Durban and took over from Andrew Hall and Andre Nel - Nel missing out because of a bruised heel.

Left-arm spin bowler Harris came in for Morne Morkel to add variety to the home attack with the series level at 1-1.

South Africa skipper Graeme Smith was delighted by their 174-run victory in Durban but said: "Our feet are firmly on the ground. We know what we have to do. It starts all over again."

India's main concern was the under-performance of their batting line-up, which has so far failed to register a single century in the series.

Rahul Dravid and Virender Sehwag in particular have been short of runs and Sehwag's confidence would not have been lifted by comments the Press Trust of India attributed to chief selector Dilip Vengsarkar, who described the opener's form as "miserable".

Vengsarkar added: "Unless and until you get a good start you cannot get a big score on the board and if you want to score 300, you must have a good start."

Dravid, meanwhile, has refused to dwell on the game in Durban and his side are unlikely to lack nerve having won the final Test in the West Indies last year to seal a series victory.

"It's exciting. We've been competitive with the South Africa team.

"We've stayed with them over the course of both these Test matches [so far] so we are quite excited about the next Test match and hope it's a good one."

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South Africa: Graeme Smith (captain), A.B. de Villiers, Jacques Kallis, Herschelle Gibbs, Hashim Amla, Ashwell Prince, Mark Boucher, Shaun Pollock, Dale Steyn, Paul Harris, Makhaya Ntini.

India: Wasim Jaffer, Virender Sehwag, Rahul Dravid (captain), Sachin Tendulkar, VVS Laxman, Saurav Ganguly, Dinesh Karthik, Anil Kumble, S Sreesanth, Zaheer Khan, Munaf Patel.