South Australia to persist with three spinners

Though South Australia Redbacks' three spinners conceded 69 runs for no wicket in eight overs against the Warriors, they are planning to play the same combination against Kolkata Knight Riders.

"The three spinners have worked very well for us over the last two years," batsman Callum Ferguson said. "I don't see that being any different coming up on Tuesday or for the rest of the tournament. We are very confident about the strategy and we think that it will bring success."

Spinners Nathan Lyon, Adil Rashid and Aaron O'Brien played a major part in South Australia's victorious Big Bash campaign in February, taking 29 wickets in seven games at under seven runs an over. However, insisting on including all of them could backfire against a side like Kolkata Knight Riders, with fine players of spin in Gautam Gambhir, Jacques Kallis and Yusuf Pathan.

In the game against the Warriors, South Australia's plight was compounded by the fact that there wasn't any control from the other end, with an erratic Shaun Tait going for 53 in his four overs. It was left to Daniel Christian and Daniel Harris to somehow keep the Warriors from exploding with 4 for 47 from eight overs of tight medium-pace.

It might be too much to expect the two Daniels to perform the holding role again, but Ferguson maintained that South Australia had things covered. "Our attack has good all-round capability. Dan Christian fills that [holding seamer's] role very well. Dan Harris did a very good job containing yesterday as well. While they may not be express, we think that Christian has got enough pace."

Another worrying aspect for South Australia was the way their batsmen approached the chase of 172 against the Warriors. Only two of the top seven managed to strike at above 100 and Ferguson was hopeful of a more purposeful approach against the Knight Riders. "We didn't think that our guys got out to outrageous shots. When you lose early wickets, it makes it difficult to rebuild the momentum straight away on a slow pitch.

"Coming up on Tuesday, we are looking to be a bit braver with how we go about it. We are going to go out and play like we normally do. We are confident that our results over the last two years have shown that this does not happen to us very often and it was just a one-off.

"We are a better side than we showed last night. We are very confident we will turn it around against KKR."