Australian Cricket: The South African tour Preview – The Players

Australian Cricket: South African Tour of Australia – Players

 

Statistics show us the Australian Cricket has never lost a test series against South Africa on home soil. The Australians will certainly be making every effort to hold on to their top spot in world test rankings and this record.  Whilst Smith, the South African Cricket Captain, has proclaimed his teams willingness to overcome the past woes of touring parties and overthrow the Australians.  Achieving this will undoubtedly seal Australia’s slide from the top of world test cricket rankings.

 

If either team is to win these players are going to hold a lot of the responsibility in ensuring it happens:

 

Australia:

• Matt Hayden: After a below average tour of India and relatively sub standard performances against New Zealand, this series could be Hayden’s last chance to prove he still has what it takes to be an Australian test opener.  Not only that but the opening stands at the WACA and SCG should prove to be extremely important for the series result to go Australia’s way.
• Brett Lee: A dreadful tour of India by his standards and a late return to form against the New Zealand Cricket team has shown the importance of Lee’s performance as the spearhead of the bowling attack.  A poor performing Lee will mean the South African batsmen will have a field day and little threat from Stuart Clark who they will feel comfortable just playing out of the attack. However, strong form from Lee will prove a handle for South Africa and make life very difficult for their top order.
• The fourth bowling spot (Hauritz/Krejza/Watson): The responsibility of the player who is selected as the fourth bowling option will be incredibly important.  Firstly, to take the pressure of Lee and Johnson but possibly more importantly to constrict runs when they have to and get the breakthrough wickets when the chips are down.  Expect to see Watson unleash some anger at the WACA and Krejza to bowl aggressively in the other two tests.
• Brad Haddin: An innings that allowed Haddin to relax and feel he deserves his spot in Adelaide and a true desire to hold his spot in the team Haddin’s glovework will be important as any mistakes behind the stumps is highly unlikely to be reciprocated by his South African counterpart.  Haddin also has a strong responsible to bring the Australian batting innings home and if the Batting lineup fails he needs to take responsibility to give Australia a respectable total to defend.

 

South Africa:

• Dale Steyn: It is exciting for me to admit that the best bowler in this series is not an Australian but part of the touring party.  With that admission, I have to place a lot of responsibility on Steyn to spearhead the bowling attack, especially at the WACA and keep bowling tight, aggressive lines to give Ntini every chance at the other end.
• Makhaya Ntini: at times Ntini can bleed runs and not look like taking a wicket.  If the Australia batsmen can successfully negotiate Steyn, then the burden for wickets will fall on Ntini, if he can get his lines consistently right he will be a real handful.  Expect him to be relied on heavily on the more sedate pitches of the MCG and SCG.
• Hasim Amla: Since fixing his backlift technique flaw, Amla has become a real exciting batsmen to watch in world cricket and the hopes of the South African batting line up will rely heavily on his ability to negotiate the new ball and go on with the job.  A successful series by Amla will mean Australia will consistently be chasing runs.  However, the change in his technique will pose challenges for him to overcome with the bounce of the WACA pitch.

 

One of the most exciting parts of this test series is that we will get to watch Boucher – the worlds best keeper, Steyn – the worlds best bowler, Ponting and Hussey – two of the worlds best batsmen, all in one test match. 

 

I personally have not been more excited about a test series since the fourth test of Australia’s losing tour of England.

Related Articles:

- South african tour Preview – The Grounds

- Review of the NZ test tour of Australia

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