
Chris Woakes returns to England's XI © Getty Images
England won the toss and decided to bat against South Africa
England will bat first as they aim to wrap up the one-day series against South Arica at Trent Bridge which will pose a new challenge for their batting line-up. In the last two matches they have completed well-paced chases of undemanding targets, but this time need to judge what is a defendable total.
They also have a rejigged batting line-up with Jonathan Trott ruled out due to his hand injury. The out-of-form Ravi Bopara will jump up to No. 3 while Jonny Bairstow slots into the middle order for his first ODI since last year's tour of India. England have also needed a change to their bowling attack with Steven Finn having picked up a back problem which means a chance for Chris Woakes to finally play a completed ODI.
South Africa have also made two changes as they try to level the series. Morne Morkel, who missed the Lord's match, is back in place of Lonwabo Tsotsobe who has not bowled like a recently No. 1 ranked player while Justin Ontong gets his first outing of the series to bolster the batting in place of allrounder Ryan McLaren.
England will be setting a target on a mild, sunny autumn afternoon but it will be much chillier by the time South Africa come to chase under lights. While day/night cricket is meant to be a bonus for the spectator, that is perhaps not quite true in England during September.
England 1 Alastair Cook (capt), 2 Ian Bell, 3 Ravi Bopara, 4 Eoin Morgan, 5 Jonny Bairstow, 6 Craig Kieswetter (wk), 7 Samit Patel, 8 Chris Woakes, 9 James Tredwell, 10 James Anderson, 11 Jade Dernbach
South Africa 1 Graeme Smith, 2 Hashim Amla, 3 Dean Elgar, 4 AB de Villiers (capt & wk), 5 JP Duminy, 6 Faf du Plessis, 7 Justin Ontong, 8 Wayne Parnell, 9 Robin Peterson, 10 Dale Steyn, 11 Morne Morkel
