Stakes will be high when South Africa and India meet in the fifth ODI of the six-match series at Port Elizabeth on Tuesday.

With a 3-1 lead, India will be looking to seal their maiden one-day series triumph on South African soil while the hosts will know that nothing less than a victory will do for them.

Here, we look at the key battles which could decide the fate of the clash.

AB de Villiers V India’s wrist-spinners

The South Africans have dearly missed AB de Villiers’s mastery against the spinners in the first-half of the series as India established their dominance. There are not many more destructive batsmen in the world against the spinning ball than the 33-year-old and if he gets stuck in on Tuesday, the spin-twins could be in for another testing evening.

Kuldeep Yadav and Yuzvendra Chahal meanwhile will be hoping that their display at the Wanderers was just an off-day and that they can re-establish their superiority on the South Africans. For that, they will need to subdue De Villiers first.

Kuldeep will have his task cut out against AB de Villiers.

 

ROHIT SHARMA V KAGISO RABADA

Rohit Sharma has had a tour to forget so far having failed to register a single fifty in eight innings now. It has simply not worked for the Mumbai-based man, be it in the Test series or now the ODIs.

Six out of his eight dismissals have come against South Africa’s young pace spearhead Kagiso Rabada. He has a combined total of only 40 runs in the four games so far and will have to clear the Rabada hurdle at the start if he is to get a big one on Tuesday.

Rohit has been Rabada’s bunny so far.

 

HASHIM AMLA V INDIA’S PACERS

Hashim Amla has not been uprooting any trees in the series either with 33 being his highest score. He has been dismissed twice by Jasprit Bumrah and once by Bhuvneshwar Kumar as he has found it difficult to get past the new-ball stage.

India’s new-ball pairing has been successful in subduing the Proteas veteran so far but you wouldn’t put it past Amla to turn the scales on Tuesday.

Amla has not had his own way against India’s pacers.