Sydney Perspective: Unchanged South Africa Wary of Australian Unknowns

South Africa will go into the Sydney Test with the same eleven but it is the Australian debutants that are prosing amusing teasers.

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Graeme Smith has decided he will play the third and final Test in Australia despite his deteriorating elbow injury. The overwhelming reason behind playing on being that this would be a great opportunity for South Africa to finish up 3-0 and lead the world for the first time and as skipper of a team that has taken great strides in the past eighteen months, it is an enticing prospect he is not willing miss out.

He is going to be fightng fit and if it means injecting his own blood in order to get his elbow to help him "brush his teeth", that is what he is willing to do in order be ready to meet Australia when they go to South Africa in a couple of months' time. The things he has had to do to postpone surgery in order to make himself available!

But Smith will continue to be without his deputy, Ashwell Prince, who has not recovered from his thumb injury. It though would have perhaps come as a blessing in disguise as JP Duminy, who replaced Prince in the first Test in which he made his debut, has been in scintillating form thus far, getting South Africa to the finish line in the first Test at the WACA, Perth and saving South Africa the blushes and setting the game up for victory with a near flawless 166 in the second Test at the MCG.

Aussies Tired?

Word on the street is despite having an additional day off thanks to the Sydney Test being postponed by a day, the Australians are not much in to training and have preferred taking the time out to rest. The bowlers require additional sympathy as Mitchell Johnson has had to shoulder much of the burden of the bowling attack and Peter Siddle has more than he bargained for when Stuart Clark was declared injured and unfit.

One would have thought it would the South Africans feeling the after effects of a heady party that went into the new year!

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Now Ponting’s Decision Stuns Smith

It was not all seriousness when discussing the line ups of the two teams. But Smith has admitted to being amazed at certain decisions ahead of the Sydney Test.

Doug Bollinger has won the Test cap for Australia for the third Test in Sydney while Ben Hilfenhaus has been on standby since the second Test at the MCG. Now that Brett Lee is injured to take the field for the second Test, Australia have decided to call in a replacement in Bollinger instead of going with the team reserve, Hilfenhaus.

Smith ascribed it as a case of “lack of clarity” on the part of the Australian think tank. But this is not the first time that Australia have defied logic. They picked Jason Krezja late in the series against India and then, played him in the first Test at the WACA only to go back to Nathan Hauritz on the way from Perth to Melbourne. Hauritz is generally considered a defensive bowler and the move certainly raised a few eyebrows in and around Australia.

Smith is certainly baffled and expressed it as much when he announced an unchanged squad.

Taking a jibe at Bollinger’s quip that he would give his 150,000%, Smith stated in jest that South Africa would definitely have every reason to worry if a guy was willing to give that much on the field.

Australia will be fielding another debutant, an allrounder in Andrew McDonald, who fills in for Andrew Symonds who underwent knee surgery and Shane Watson down with stress fractures in the back. Speaking of the fact that South Africa had seen little of both players, Smith reflected that it was a bit like playing club cricket when one did not get access to watching the player on television or have some analysis done to clue in on his potential weaknesses.

Debutants or not, Australia now have a big job trying to stop South Africa in their tracks and from usurping the number one tag. South Africa though have the motivation of trying for the tag to not let the dead rubber be what it would have otherwise been – dead!

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