New Zealand vs. South Africa 3rd ODI: Date, Live Stream, TV Info and Preview

South Africa have got the ODI series against New Zealand in the bag already. The visitors won the first two ODIs and will now play a dead rubber in Hamilton

Venue: Seddon Park, Hamilton

Commences: Monday, Oct. 27

Start time: 10:30 p.m. BST (previous day) and 10:30 a.m. local

Live on: SuperSport (South Africa), SkySports (New Zealand SkySports (UK), Willow TV (USA and Canada) and Star Sports (India)

Weather:  Sadly, the news from AccuWeather.com is not good. Showers are forecast for most of the day and they could be severe enough to disrupt play. Rain has threatened most of the series thus far, but this is the worst forecast of the lot. 

Overview

This might be a dead rubber in terms of the series, but for South Africa, it's far more than that. Firstly, they are playing at one of the World Cup venues. This will give them a chance to gather some intel for one of their group matches in the 2015 World Cup. Secondly, a win will not only ensure a 0-3 series win, but it will also see South Africa return to the top of the ODI rankings.

Rankings in the one-day format do not count for much in terms of seeding for the World Cup or beyond, but they do offer some bragging rights and a little bit of a confidence boost.

South Africa have already completed two convincing wins over the Black Caps, but those were not without their issues. The bowling towards the death and the lower order batting is of particular concern. However, it's better for these problems to be ironed out now than at a World Cup.

Regardless of the result in Hamilton, though, South Africa are in a very good position. They have won four bilateral series on the trot. This one, plus beating Zimbabwe (3-0 away), Sri Lanka (2-1 away) and India (2-0 home). Sandwiched in between those, they also won a tri-series in Zimbabwe by beating Australia in the final.

This all serves as a big boost in confidence and will allow the visitors to experiment a bit more in the final ODI, if they so wish. The top order batting is a powerhouse and the top five have been dominant since the start of the year. Everyone in the top five, except for Quinton de Kock averages over 65.00 in the one-day format since the start of this year. That’s a massive plus and will make New Zealand’s task all that more difficult.

The hosts are playing for pride and will need a really special performance to overcome the South Africans and the weather in the final match.

Key players

New Zealand

Luke Ronchi has outscored all his teammates and is the only New Zealand player to have scored more than 50 runs across the two ODIs. Ronchi has 178 runs in the two matches and New Zealand will once again look to him to provide some stability.

South Africa

Quinton de Kock has gotten a few starts this series, but he is yet to convert those. He's scored just 35 runs over the two one-day internationals and South Africa will want their pragmatic batsman to come good before they head to Australia.

Squads

New Zealand

Brendon McCullum (captain), Corey Anderson, Trent Boult, Dean Brownlie, Martin Guptill, Matt Henry, Tom Latham, Mitchell McClenaghan, Nathan McCullum, Kyle Mills, James Neesham, Luke Ronchi, Tim Southee, Daniel Vettori.

South Africa

AB de Villiers (capt.), Hashim Amla, Kyle Abbott, Quinton de Kock, JP Duminy, Faf du Plessis, Imran Tahir, Ryan McLaren, David Miller, Morne Morkel, Wayne Parnell, Aaron Phangiso, Vernon Philander, Rilee Rossouw, Dale Steyn.

All stats via ESPNCricinfo, unless otherwise stated.