After registering three consecutive wins, the men in blue will be looking to rewrite the history books in the fourth ODI against a depleted South Africa in Johannesburg on Saturday. Riding high on confidence, the visitors sweat hard during an optional practice session on Friday at the iconic Wanderers stadium. The Indian players spent some "quality" time in the nets and fine-tuned their skills ahead of the important clash.
Seen in action, vice-captain Rohit Sharma who had an outing so far in the series was the first one to head to the nets for an extended practice session. The 30-year old batsman was dismissed for nought in the last ODI in Cape Town, he has scored a total of 35 runs in three matches so far which is way below his standards particularly in the limited-overs format.
Hardik Pandya also put in the hard yards in the nets and focussed much on sharpening his batting skills. Barring his 93-run knock in the first Test against South Africa in Cape Town, the dynamic all-rounder had an ordinary tour to the Rainbow nation. Pandya did some serious knocking in the nets to prepare well against the probing Proteas pace attack.
One of the most reliable batsman in the Indian middle order - Ajinkya Rahane also spent some time in the practice session along with bowling coach Bharat Arun. Rahane played a brilliant knock of 79 in the first ODI in Durban but failed to make much contribution in the last match in Cape Town.
With an unassailable 3-0 lead in hand, the Virat Kohli-led outfit need just one more win in the six-match series to claim their maiden ODI triumph on South African soil and also cement their place atop the International Cricket Council (ICC) ODI rankings. Previously, India came close taking a 2-1 lead in the 2010-11 series under Mahendra Singh Dhoni, only to lose 2-3 eventually.
