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Proteas seek Colly wobble

Rob Houwing, Sport24 chief writer

Cape Town – Amidst the hype around Jonathan Trott’s “homecoming”, there is a tendency to forget that the England player to have done the most damage to South Africa this season has been Paul Collingwood.

The gritty all-rounder, now his country’s most experienced one-day international player, has been in scorching form as a batsman in all three limited-overs games he has played against the Proteas – and the tourists have won each time.

He boasts successive scores of 82 off 94 balls in the ICC Champions Trophy encounter at SuperSport Park, then 57 off 32 in the first Standard Bank Pro20 international at the Wanderers – he sat out the heavy defeat two days later – and 105 not out (110 deliveries) in the first completed MTN ODI, back at the Centurion venue.

Throw in the fact that his strangling little medium-pacers have come in useful too, and the Durham man shapes as an obstacle of note again to the Proteas levelling matters at Newlands on Friday.

Collingwood has been involved in massive, game-tilting partnerships in each of the 50-overs internationals against Graeme Smith’s outfit – first with Owais Shah in the Champions Trophy and then Trott last Sunday.

At his captain’s press conference on Thursday, Sport24 asked Smith whether his side had put in extra homework on Collingwood in the lead-up.

“I think our homework on him is pretty good,” he said. “The guy is playing well. He’s carried some form through … he’s playing with a lot more impetus than I remember before.

“He seems to be taking the game a little bit more to the bowlers and that’s something we must be alert to.

“I think the first 20 to 30 balls are key to him and hopefully we can get that right tomorrow.”

Smith is probably right on that score: Collingwood is not the most naturally gifted batsman on the planet and does tend to give quality bowlers an opportunity to nick him out early.

But he is a “nudger and nurdler” of repute who produces an increasing repertoire of more expansive strokes as he gets settled, and he lacks nothing in the fighting spirit department.

More broadly, Smith seemed chipper about the Proteas turning out at a particularly happy ODI hunting ground for them on Friday.

Asked why their winning record was so formidable in Cape Town, Smith said Newlands was a venue the entire team enjoyed playing at.

“There’s always great energy … the crowd here are fantastic; a knowledgeable crowd who really get behind the local team (the Cape Cobras) and the national side.

“It’s just a place we generally feel comfortable performing at and let’s hope that continues tomorrow. We haven’t played much at the South African coast of late and look forward to that.”

South Africa continue the series at Port Elizabeth on Sunday before playing the final encounter in Durban.

Referring to the Proteas’ unusually ropey record against England in ODIs during the past two years or so, Smith said “it is very recent history”.

“Right into the World Cup of 2007 (in the West Indies) we’d had a very successful run against England in one-day cricket.

“In the last two games, we simply haven’t played well enough and England have played the bigger moments better in the game – they’ve played situations with responsibility.

“We must just get to the level we’re capable of in this one. The honesty has been there, the energy has been good, training’s been very impressive this week … hopefully we can move smoothly into the format tomorrow.”

Evidence from the Thursday morning net session at Newlands seemed to suggest that the Proteas will omit Albie Morkel and similarly resist the temptation to include Herschelle Gibbs - arguably leaving them a little light on batting explosiveness but giving their presently iffy bowling slightly better depth.

The side ought not to differ from this: Graeme Smith (captain), Hashim Amla, AB de Villiers, JP Duminy, Alviro Petersen, Mark Boucher, Ryan McLaren, Roelof van der Merwe, Wayne Parnell, Dale Steyn, Charl Langeveldt.
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