South Africa's chance for redemption

The venue is Centurion, and quite fittingly, three players will reach the 100-Test mark when the South Africa-New Zealand series kicks off at the Supersport Park. One of them, Stephen Fleming, will be leading his side for the 76th time, but another, Jacques Kallis, might get that honour too if Graeme Smith fails to recover completely from a finger injury which forced him to miss the third Test against Australia last month.

New Zealand have never won a Test series in South Africa - the closest they came was in 1961-62, when they drew a five-Test series 2-2 - but they're on a bit of a hot streak at the moment, with five wins in their last six matches. An overseas series against South Africa, though, will be a challenge of a completely different level from the ones they faced recently - Sri Lanka and West Indies (at home) and Zimbabwe (away).

The bad news is that Shane Bond, the one bowler in their line-up with genuine pace and destructive ability, has been ruled out after failing to recover from a dodgy knee. He looked a good prospect for the game till he pulled up lame the day before the match. In his absence, Kyle Mills will be the third member of a pace attack that also includes James Franklin and Chris Martin.

The good news is Jacob Oram's return to the side after a 16-month absence. Oram made a first-ball duck against Rest of South Africa, but bowled a couple of tight spells, and will be the fifth bowler in an attack which also includes James Franklin and Chris Martin.

The problem area for New Zealand is likely to be at the top of the order, with Hamish Marshall and Peter Fulton - neither a regular opener - being preferred to the specialists Jamie How and Michael Papps. Marshall averages an impressive 41.40 in 12 matches, but his few forays at the top of the order haven't been as productive - 38 runs in four innings. Fulton impressed in both Tests and ODIs in the home season; all that remains is for him to prove he can replicate that form against Makhaya Ntini, Andre Nel and Shaun Pollock, the third 100-Test man in the fray.

John Bracewell, the coach, explained the team composition thus: "We will ideally need a quality fifth bowler to be competitive against the top sides who have batting depth, especially as we are at an altitude. South Africa bat strongly well down their order and we need these resources to counter that," said Bracewell. "To do that, and to retain our most in-form and experienced batting line-up, we will open with Peter Fulton, with the captain batting at three. The decision on the other opener was a tough one. It is very tough on both Michael [Papps] and Jamie, but the tour selectors' assessment is that Hamish has the record, especially against the top sides, has a great temperament and is ready for the challenge."

South Africa have a worry at the top of the order too, with Smith not yet a certainty. "Graeme batted for 40 minutes in the nets on Thursday, and while he did feel some discomfort he was encouraged by how much the injury had improved," South African media manager Tshepo Tsotsotso told Reuters. A final decision, though, will have to wait till much closer to the game. If Smith does pull out, it might offer another opportunity to Boeta Dippenaar to prove that he is capable of more than pretty 20s and 30s.

South Africa-New Zealand series have in the past been breeding ground for plenty of on-field and off-field banter, but things have been relatively quiet this time around, with both camps insisting that the focus will be on the cricket. Bond did take a few digs at his opponents, though, suggesting that the amount of cricket South Africa had played, and their recent results, would go against them.

"Our two major worries coming here so late in the summer were firstly, would the team be in one piece, and secondly how tired we would be," Bond told a news conference. "But after the West Indies series we're actually feeling very fresh, we feel pretty good. We've played probably half as much test cricket as South Africa, with breaks in between, and we're here with our full team. A lot has been said about how tired South Africa are and how they need time off."

Reminded about New Zealand's 4-0 defeat to South Africa in the one-day series late last year, Bond quickly deflected the attention to the home team's recent loss to Australia. "The one-dayers were so long ago, we've forgotten about that loss," Bond said. "South Africa are the ones who have something to turn around from."

South Africa (likely) 1 Graeme Smith (capt), Boeta Dippenaar, 2 AB de Villiers, 3 Herschelle Gibbs, 4 Jacques Kallis, 5 Ashwell Prince, 6 Jacques Rudolph, 7 Mark Boucher (wk), 8 Shaun Pollock, 9 Nicky Boje, 10 Andre Nel, 11 Makhaya Ntini.

New Zealand 1 Peter Fulton, 2 Hamish Marshall, 3 Stephen Fleming (capt), 4 Nathan Astle, 5 Scott Styris, 6 Jacob Oram, 7 Brendon McCullum (wk), 8 Daniel Vettori, 9 James Franklin, 10 Kyle Mills, 11 Chris Martin.