India eye victory against Proteas to stay alive

With a goal of avoiding a second successive limited over series defeat, India will be desperately eying for a win when they take on South Africa here at the MA Chidambaram Stadium in the fourth ODI on Thursday.

Having tasted a stinging defeat in the third ODI, the Mahendra Singh Dhoni led-side would like to give Indian fans an extra reason to celebrate Dussehra.

Trailing by 1-2 in the five-match series, the host have now come to a do or die situation where they will have to win it all in order to keep the series alive. The hosts have already conceded the three-match T20 series 2-0.

India have altered their squad for the final two ODIs, with left-arm pacer Sreenath Aravind replacing Umesh Yadav.

For South Africa, in-form J.P. Duminy's hand injury has ruled him out of the rest of the series and Dean Elgar has arrived as his replacement.

Pacer Morne Morkel has a sore leg and he could be rested for this game.

With just three runs from the three matches so far, middle order batsman Suresh Raina will be in the spotlight. He has been dismissed for ducks in his last two innings and has not contributed a fifty since the World Cup. With India's middle-order being prone to meltdowns, Raina will have to deliver to help India's cause.

Besides, Hashim Amla could again enter the record books as he is just 22 runs away from being the fastest to reach 6,000 ODI runs.

A victory for the visitors today could secure them their first-ever bilateral series win in India, while the Indian skipper would be looking to turn the tables and avoid a second straight ODI series defeat after a 2-1 loss to Bangladesh.