Lords of the pace

I’d like to wish Kevin Pietersen all the best and a strong showing in the opening npower Test between England and South Africa at Lords tomorrow. As I say I’d like to, but unfortunately I’d be bullshitting the turncoat. For me an ideal return would be two ducks with lashings of dropped catches.

He’d better not come good against us again.

Since readmission, South Africa have played six series against England. Included in this have been three Tests at Lords, each ending in victory for the Proteas. The problem has been we have failed to go on and win the series there.

The big question at the moment is whether the Proteas are going to be fielding an all seam attack. The media in particular are playing up Dale Steyn and Morne Morkel with Mickey Arthur confirming that sooner or later he believes they may be numbers 1 and 2 in the Test rankings. Makhya Ntini along with all rounder Jacques Kallis are also certain starters, which leaves Paul Harris and Andre Nel to contest the final place.

I believe we need to include a spinner for variation particularly in light of the fact that besides the captain we have no part-time spinners in the side. What amazes me about Australia is that they always have batsmen who are useful part time spinners or medium pacers while South Africa never seem to get this right. Whenever the Aussie attack is bogged down, along comes a part timer to break up a partnership.

One thing I can tell you is that the effort being put into building up our pace attack as comparable to the great West Indian attacks of the 1980s is testimony to one thing only — ticket sales must be down. With all due respect to Dale, Morkel and Makhya, they have a million miles to go before they can be spoken about in the same breath as Roberts, Garner, Holding and Marshall. That doesn’t mean I wouldn’t love to see them tear the England batting line-up to shreds.

In terms of the batting line-ups I would say that we are showing more consistency since McKenzie has joined Smith at the top of the order. The Poms, however, are fielding an unchanged side for a record sixth consecutive match. We all know what Strauss and Pietersen are capable of (against us) and Collingwood is a very solid number 6.

It has been raining a lot in the area and locals believe that this would be a good toss to win and bowl first if there’s heavy cloud cover. I’ll stick with tried and tested bat first. If you have any doubts bat first.

Otherwise bat first.

Teams:
England: MP Vaughan (capt), AN Cook, AJ Strauss, KP Pietersen, IR Bell, PD Collingwood, TR Ambrose (wkt), RJ Sidebottom, SC Broad, JM Anderson, MS Panesar.

South Africa: GC Smith (capt), ND McKenzie, HM Amla, JH Kallis, AG Prince, AB de Villiers, MV Boucher (wkt), PL Harris, M Morkel, M Ntini, DW Steyn, A Nel.

Umpires: DJ Harper (Aus) & BF Bowden (NZ)

Third Umpire: NJ Llong

Match Referee: JJ Crowe (NZ).