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India to face South Africa in T20 this month

Posted by Admin on Monday, 5 March 2012 | 0 comments

India will travel to Johannesburg to play a one-off Twenty20 match against South Africa on March 30 at the Wanderers. The match, ESPNcricinfo has understood, was planned well in advance though it comes on the back of lengthy and hectic touring by both teams.

Ratnakar Shetty, the BCCI chief administrative officer, said India would send its first eleven for the match. CSA confirmed these matches would be an annual affair, following up on last year's Twenty20 game between the two sides at Moses Mabhida stadium in Durban as a farewell for Makhaya Ntini.

The Twenty20 takes place three days after South Africa finish their tour of New Zealand with three back-to-back Tests. It is also a week after the end of the Asia Cup, and five days before the start of the IPL in Chennai. "It will bring down the curtain on our home international season on an appropriate note," CSA chief executive Gerald Majola said, "before many of the players depart for India for the fifth edition of the IPL."

On the day of the match, CSA has organised a tribute for Jacques Kallis. "We want to make this a Jacques Kallis evening," Majola said, "in which we acknowledge his huge contribution to the Proteas and South African cricket generally as player, role model and mentor."

Kallis said he was humbled to be chosen for the tribute. "It is something I really appreciate," Kallis said. "Cricket South Africa has given me wonderful opportunities to live the dream I have had from the moment I picked up a cricket bat for the first time."

The final of the MiWAY Cup, South Africa's domestic Twenty20 tournament, was supposed to be played on March 30, but now has been shifted to April 1.