The Proteas will have captain Temba Bavuma back for the contents to add some solidity to their middle order and he rather wryly grace a blunt answer when questioned what plans his side had made for the fixture.
“The plan for the next match is to win the game,” he told reporters on Tuesday. “From a mindset point of view, nothing changes when you go out to win the game.
“We don’t respect the opposition any differently. You still go through the same processes. So nothing really changes.”
Where Bavuma will bat remains to be seen, but he could well open, and says there is definitely a role for stroke makers like himself in ODI cricket, where it cannot be all about bludgeoning sixes.
“There’s always that element of batsmanship that you need,” he said. “I know there’s a big craze about guys hitting sixes in the middle order, but you need a little bit of batsmanship.
"Where I fit in, generally being in that top three, I’m easy whichever way is best for the team.”
The venue in Raipur has a larger playing surface than the first match in Ranchi, where 681 runs were scored across the match.
“It does look bigger than Ranchi, more particularly the squares, so I’m sure the twos and threes will come into play,” Bavuma said.
“From a batting point of view, you’ll have to run your ones and twos. From a bowling point of view, you’ll probably want to use the longer square boundaries to your advantage.”
South Africa are seeking first ODI series win in India since 2015.