History points to win at St George’s
Domingo tells how Proteas love playing conditions and crowd
THE Proteas will look to continue their love affair with St George’s Park when they host Sri Lanka in the Boxing Day test in Port Elizabeth, starting on Monday. South Africa have gone unbeaten in their three most recent tests at the country’s oldest test venue, against New Zealand (2013, win), Australia (2014, win) and West Indies (2014, draw) and are beginning to establish somewhat of a fortress in the Bay.
Coach Russell Domingo spoke yesterday of how St George’s had become one of the team’s most favoured test venues. He also mentioned how the playing surface tended to lend itself to the South African game plan.
“The guys love coming to Port Elizabeth. We feel that the pitch suits us to a degree,” Domingo said.
“The ball tends to reverse swing here because of the abrasiveness of the pitch which helps our seamers.
“We know that if there is a little bit of an easterly wind, or if conditions are overcast, we are also able to exploit these with our seamers.
“You have to be very patient and you have to grind out runs and the strength of our side is in the level of patience and the ability to withstand those types of periods.
“The crowd support is phenomenal, there are great nets and great facilities. It has been very kind to us.”
Domingo said there was always the hope within the Proteas setup that home pitches would be prepared to suit the team’s strengths.
“When you play against sub-continent sides and when you play at home you’d hope that you’d get pitches which offer the seamers assistance.
“The last thing we want is to get back to South Africa and have pitches that are going to turn square from day one or two.
“But a lot of grass at St George’s often doesn’t mean much.
“It’s very much the cloud cover and the direction of the wind that assists the bowlers.
“To be able to get a bit more pace and bounce in the pitch, I think they need to leave a bit of grass on it.
“We have been frustrated in the past. Sometimes we felt that some of our pitches at home suit our opposition more than they suit us,” he said, smiling.
“We played on some pitches in Durban that turn square against sub-continent sides and we’re thinking, ‘That’s not what we’re looking for’.
“I think in South Africa at this time of the year with the heat and the wind, pitches don’t always offer what we are looking for, which brings the opposition into the game a lot more.
“So I suppose in that context, the venues in South Africa are probably a fairer contest than most venues around the world.”
There is an added bonus for fourthranked South Africa if they manage to clinch the series 3-0.
A whitewash would move them to No 2 in the world and a series win would see them up to No 3.
“It’s a very important series for us. We have been playing a good brand of test cricket of late and we will look to continue that,” Domingo said.
But he added: “I don’t think that, bar India’s great performance at home, there’s much between any of the top four, five test sides and one-day sides at the moment.”
South Africa have only picked 13 players for this series – a move which Domingo said would limit selection problems and also give the incumbents a sense of security.