da aposte e ganhe： A willing, competitive, but inexperienced South Africa start Monday’s third and final match needing a win to equal their best result in the country
da pixbet： Preview by Peter English01-Jan-2006
Graeme Smith knows that South Africa can ill afford a butter-fingered response to chances © AFP
Even before Australia’s lengthy howzats in the second innings at the MCGthis series had been the most appealing at home for years. Groomed ondominating visiting outfits, Ricky Ponting’s team had to wait eight daysover two Tests before wrestling control from a willing, competitive, butinexperienced South Africa, who start Monday’s third and final match needinga win to equal their best result in the country.The cricket has been absorbing and when combined with the side issues ofover-appealing, race issues and the war of words it has led to a simmeringDecember, which ended with a 42C day as the teams flew on Saturday fromMelbourne to Sydney. The SCG is the site of South Africa’s most famousvictory in Australia, a five-run thriller in 1993-94, and they need anothernever-say-die performance to recover from the 1-0 deficit.Graeme Smith will have to do it without Makhaya Ntini, the strike bowler whohas returned home with a knee injury. Andre Nel will assume theattack-leading responsibilities – his main pace support will come from ShaunPollock and Jacques Kallis – and he has talked tough during the first twoTests, turned the apparent hatred from Australian crowds into a spur andcreated many problems for his opponents. Unfortunately for South Africatheir fielders have let them down with poor catching; Ricky Ponting andMichael Hussey were both dropped before reaching 30 in the first innings atMelbourne and went on to score crucial centuries.Mickey Arthur, the coach, has worked his players hard at training on thistour and is worried he might have pushed them too much. Smith saidthe team had absorbed the pressure well, but wondered how the situationwould have been different if the extra chances had been held.”It’s almost like quicksand, the harder you work the further you slip,” hesaid. “It’s just about relaxing and letting natural ability take over. We’velet ourselves down and we know that.” South Africa will undergo somereshuffling to cater for Ntini’s absence and may play the offspinner JohanBotha – either in tandem with Nicky Boje or instead of him – if the pitchlooks like a big-turner.
Will Michael Hussey’s golden run continue? © AFP
Only something extreme would push Australia to interrupt the Shane Warne andStuart MacGill partnership as they attempt to win the series before thereturn leg in South Africa in March. MacGill calls the SCG his “house” andin seven Tests there has taken 49 wickets at 23.71, including fivefive-wicket hauls.Australia’s only change will be Justin Langer returning for Phil Jaquesafter he recovered from a hamstring strain suffered in the first Test atPerth. Langer has experienced a disrupted season, but there is no doubt overhis position when fit and as a veteran of the side he will be an importantfigure in making sure they take advantage of the strong position.Both teams believe they can win and their attitudes set up a thrillingend to an already brilliant series. “We go to Sydney a stronger outfit,”Arthur said. “Our bounce-back ability is brilliant.”Australia (probable) 1 Matthew Hayden, 2 Justin Langer, 3 RickyPonting (capt), 4 Brad Hodge, 5 Michael Hussey, 6 Andrew Symonds, 7 AdamGilchrist (wk), 8 Shane Warne, 9 Brett Lee, 10 Stuart MacGill, 11 GlennMcGrath.South Africa (probable) 1 Graeme Smith (capt), 2 AB de Villiers, 3Herschelle Gibbs, 4 Jaques Kallis, 5 Ashwell Prince, 6 Jacques Rudolph, 7Mark Boucher, 8 Shaun Pollock, 9 Johan Botha, 10 Nicky Boje, 11 Andre Nel.
