Rain threatens to reign
Rain remained the main concern for both teams as they headed into the opening game of the five-match one-day series on Sunday
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The sporadic downpours that have made the skies over Johannesburg grey
remained the main concern for both teams as they headed into the opening
game of the five-match one-day series on Sunday. With rain lashing the
city in the morning, practice plans had to be altered, with South Africa
going up the road to SuperSport Park in Centurion and India opting for the
indoor nets in the basement at the Wanderers.
India, who have won only three matches here from 16 encounters against
South Africa dating back to 1992-93, go into the game on the back of a
defeat against Rest of South Africa, but as Rahul Dravid pointed out at
the pre-match press conference, they aren't the first team to start an
away tour indifferently.
The fact that Virender Sehwag has recovered from his hand injury well
enough to come through a full batting session will no doubt encourage the
side. Sehwag's recent form hasn't been the best, but he if needs any
inspiration he need only to replay tapes of that breakthrough innings on
Test debut at Bloemfontein.
Dravid suggested that India needed to be brave, and the team is almost
certain to play three pace bowlers and Irfan Pathan in addition to
Harbhajan Singh. With Mahendra Singh Dhoni expected to move into the No.5
slot vacated by Yuvraj Singh, Suresh Raina and Dinesh Mongia will tussle
for the last batting place. Despite a catalogue of woe that dates back to
the West Indies tour, Raina is likely to be given fresh licence to go out
and express himself.
For Graeme Smith, there are few selection issues to deal with. Loots
Bosman did little wrong in his one Champions Trophy outing, and the
inclement weather conditions should mean that either Charl Langeveldt or
Andrew Hall get the nod ahead of Robin Peterson. Smith will be the lone
slow-bowling option, though his offspin is hardly likely to terrorise the
Indians.
The surface to be used for Sunday's game bears more than a little
resemblance to that on which South Africa and Australia combined for an
incredible 872 runs in March, but with thunderstorms forecast for the day,
the cloud cover should ensure that no bowler meets with the fate that
befell Mick Lewis, whose 10 overs that day went for the small matter of
113.
The last time India played here, Ricky Ponting and Damien Martyn
eviscerated their World Cup dream with some of the finest batting ever
seen on the limited-overs stage. For some of the old boys, it was a red-letter
day that went horribly wrong. The new ones, many of whom weren't even in
the selection picture three years ago, have no such trauma to deal with,
and it could be their ability to adapt, or not, that decides the fate of
this series.
South Africa (likely): 1 Graeme Smith (capt), 2 Loots Bosman, 3
Herschelle Gibbs, 4 Jacques Kallis, 5 AB de Villiers, 6 Mark Boucher (wk),
7 Justin Kemp, 8 Shaun Pollock, 9 Andre Nel, 10 Charl Langeveldt, 11
Makhaya Ntini.
India (likely): 1 Virender Sehwag, 2 Sachin Tendulkar, 3 Mohammad
Kaif, 4 Rahul Dravid (capt), 5 Mahendra Singh Dhoni (wk), 6 Suresh Raina, 7 Irfan
Pathan, 8 Ajit Agarkar, 9 Harbhajan Singh, 10 Zaheer Khan, 11 Munaf Patel.
Dileep Premachandran is features editor of Cricinfo