Oz pacers create selection dilemma
FACTBOX LAST FIVE MEETINGS
Some of the world’s best fast bowlers will square up when the first Test between South Africa and Australia starts at Kingsmead tomorrow.
They may find, however, that some of their sting might drawn from them by pitch conditions.
Kingsmead has lost the reputation it once had as a fast bowlers’ paradise. It has been many years since wicketkeepers had to leap around as balls soared and sped off the playing surface.
Indications are that the pitch will offer encouragement but not excessive help to the fast men, with enough grass on the surface to assist movement off the seam.
The South African team, it seems, has given up on trying to influence conditions after their “requests” to groundsmen resulted in pitches that were less than ideal for a recent three-Test series against India. The surface for the third Test at the Wanderers was condemned as poor by International Cricket Council match referee Andy Pycroft.
“Everybody knows what happened at the Wanderers, so we’ve left the groundsmen to prepare the best possible pitches that they can,” coach Ottis Gibson said last week.
Assuming the conditions are fair, it should be a red-blooded battle between the teams ranked second and third in Test cricket behind India.
Both have potent fast bowlers and exciting, if fragile, batting line-ups. South Africa won the first two Tests against India with a four-man pace attack, left-arm South Africa have won 14 of their 42 Tests at Durban, including victory by an innings and 129 runs in 1970 when Graeme Pollock and Barry Richards thrashed Australia to score 274 and 140 respectively.
DURBAN:
3 2009: Australia won by 175 runs
2006: Australia won by 112 runs
2004: South Africa won by five wickets 1994: Match drawn
1970: South Africa won by an innings and 129 runs spinner Keshav Maharaj and just six top-quality batsmen. But they may be tempted to strengthen their batting at the expense of one of the specialist bowlers.
That decision may be influenced by a lack of form of key players as well as injuries which kept several out of action in recent weeks. 5
Temba Bavuma has not recovered from a fractured finger and is ruled out from the first Test. South Africa captain Faf du Plessis said they are yet to decide whether they want to play six or seven batsmen and four seamers.