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Centurion – The English cricket team must not expect to receive an early Christmas gift at SuperSport Park.
Captain Andrew Strauss complained on Tuesday about the batting strip that is being prepared for the first Test that starts against South Africa on Wednesday.
“There is still a lot of grass on the wicket, which can make things a lot more difficult for the batsmen. It will probably force us to play only six specialist batsmen,” said Strauss.
“Hopefully it looks better when we look at it again on Wednesday morning, but at the moment the plan is clearly to maximise the strengths of the South African fast bowlers.”
Dale Steyn, Makhaya Ntini and Morné Morkel would have licked their lips in anticipation on Tuesday.
“Whoever wins the toss should bowl first. We have played here before on a wicket that did not look particularly good, but it ended up being quite good for batting.”
Meanwhile, there is still doubt about the fitness of James Anderson. England’s front-line bowler has been struggling with a knee injury for the last month.
“Our medical team is confident that he will come through the Test, but it’s still a risk with an injury like this,” said Strauss.
“We will therefore only decide on our starting team shortly before the game.”
Strauss also hit out at an earlier remark by Ntini, who described the absence of all-rounder Andrew Flintoff as a significant blow to the English.
He said that Flintoff, who retired from Test cricket earlier this year, was the one player that struck fear into the Proteas.
“Andrew is a world class player and we will miss him, but it may count in our favour if South Africa think the rest of our players are not dangerous,” said the England captain.
“Both teams will play aggressive cricket. I don’t anticipate any of my players standing back. We will fight fire with fire,” added Strauss.
Centurion – The English cricket team must not expect to receive an early Christmas gift at SuperSport Park.
Captain Andrew Strauss complained on Tuesday about the batting strip that is being prepared for the first Test that starts against South Africa on Wednesday.
“There is still a lot of grass on the wicket, which can make things a lot more difficult for the batsmen. It will probably force us to play only six specialist batsmen,” said Strauss.
“Hopefully it looks better when we look at it again on Wednesday morning, but at the moment the plan is clearly to maximise the strengths of the South African fast bowlers.”
Dale Steyn, Makhaya Ntini and Morné Morkel would have licked their lips in anticipation on Tuesday.
“Whoever wins the toss should bowl first. We have played here before on a wicket that did not look particularly good, but it ended up being quite good for batting.”
Meanwhile, there is still doubt about the fitness of James Anderson. England’s front-line bowler has been struggling with a knee injury for the last month.
“Our medical team is confident that he will come through the Test, but it’s still a risk with an injury like this,” said Strauss.
“We will therefore only decide on our starting team shortly before the game.”
Strauss also hit out at an earlier remark by Ntini, who described the absence of all-rounder Andrew Flintoff as a significant blow to the English.
He said that Flintoff, who retired from Test cricket earlier this year, was the one player that struck fear into the Proteas.
“Andrew is a world class player and we will miss him, but it may count in our favour if South Africa think the rest of our players are not dangerous,” said the England captain.
“Both teams will play aggressive cricket. I don’t anticipate any of my players standing back. We will fight fire with fire,” added Strauss.
