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[caption id="attachment_47231" align="aligncenter" width="580"] India to face world no.1 South Africa in an 'unofficial' quarter-final. Image Source: twitter[/caption] Internet Desk: Virat Kohli led Indian cricket team will play their toughest ODI match in recent times when they take on the World No.1 team South Africa in an unofficial ‘quarter-final’ of the ICC Champions Trophy at the Oval tomorrow. Sri Lanka’s smooth win in the previous high-scoring encounter with India has somewhat shaken the confidence of the defending champions. The Indian team is now eager to certify that South Africa continues to be tagged as “chokers”. Both the current No.1 ranked ODI side and reigning champions India would be making an exit before the last four stages if they lose on Sunday at the Oval. A defeat will have the sceptics blaming the speculated off-the-field issues for the poor performance. Kohli will be under a lot of pressure and cannot afford to go wrong with his tactics against a strong South African outfit. There has been a lot of criticism on not playing Ashwin in the tournament so far. Considering that South Africa’s batting line up has quite a few left hand batsmen such as Quinton de Cock,  Jean Paul Duminy and David Miller, it will be a good option to play Ravichandran Ashwin. The off spinner will add some variations to the bowling attack, including the off-break which is his stock ball. The proud performer that he is, Ashwin will be smarting after being excluded in the first two games and it can only work positively in India’s favour. Ashwin’s entry into the playing XI looks logical but he certainly won’t replace Jadeja as two spinners are likely to play against the Proteas, who are not known to be comfortable against slow bowlers. The other big factor is Jadeja’s electric fielding inside the circle and the powerful arm from anywhere at the boundary line. Jadeja can save at least 15 runs per match which makes him an useful player in this format. Neither can Hardik Pandya be dropped as his pyrotechnics at No 7 is just what is needed from a batsman used as a floater in the order. The all-rounder was seen working on his line with Coach Anil Kumble and Md Shami. Shami, who is yet to recover from an injury to his left knee, was seen giving some tips to Pandya in the presence of Kumble. He was seen bowling at one stump. Jasprit Bumrah is another specialist bowler, who is a certainty in the playing XI, with his ability to bowl Yorkers at will at the death. The axe may fall on Kedar Jadhav if Ashwin comes in the team against the Proteas. The men in blue arrived an hour late for practice today owing to heavy traffic due to an accident. Coach Anil Kumble looked concern as he came down the team bus. Ravindra Jadeja, who did not have a good outing against the Sri Lankans, was seen getting some tips from MS Dhoni at the nets. The former India captain was seen working on his action at the nets. The batsmen especially Dhawan was given some short ball practice by fielding coach Sridhar, considering the Proteas new ball bowlers will unleash some short stuff aimed at the left hander’s ribs. One major concern for the Indian team was the bowlers failing to get the yorkers right in death overs. Coach Anil Kumble asked his bowlers to bowl yorkers at the nets by placing a shoe on the practice wicket. Another concern for the men in blue will be second power play overs. In the second Powerplay overs during the Sri Lanka match, India had conceded over 200 runs, something Ashwin will be asked to check as a marauding AB de Villiers will be itching to score big. With scores of 319 and 323 in the two games, the batting has a settled look. All the top-order batsmen have got a decent hit including the opening duo of Rohit-Sharma-Shikhar Dhawan, who conjured back-to-back century partnerships. While both openers have been in good nick, there’s no denying that they have also consumed a lot of balls initially, which finally had an impact during the Lanka game. With new power play rules, any total of less than 340 can be knocked off with some positive intent in strokeplay. The match will be played on the same track on which India played against Sri Lanka on Thursday. It goes to be seen whether fortunes will change for Virat Kohli and his team on Sunday.