Fit Rhodes ready for fifth Test

Centurion - With Jonty Rhodes recovering well from the hamstring niggle South Africa's selectors are expected to retain the side for the fifth Test of the Millennium Series in Centurion as that which wiped out England well inside four days at Newlands last week.

Graham Ford, South Africa's coach, yesterday commented he was "more than pleased with his (Rhode's) progress" and sounded confident. The side meets at their Johannesburg hotel around lunch on Wednesday and begin their plans for the training session at the SuperSport Park nets in the afternoon.

"I have been working with Jonty the last few days and he's been moving well," Ford said. Which is the sort of news Hansie Cronje, South Africa's captain, along with the selectors would want to hear with the game starting on Friday. Pieter Strydom, brought in by the selectors on Friday as cover for Rhodes, is expected to remain part of the squad.

Cronje, however, has repeated his desire to get among the runs for the first time since the first Test of the series at the Wanderers where he scored 46.

The tall national captain has fond memories of the spacious Centurion venue where he has a good batting record which includes an innings of 82 against Sri Lanka. The half-century was off 31 balls, the second fastest in Test history and he employed the slog-sweep shot against Muthia Muralitharan to good effect.

Two other batsmen looking to score big runs on what looks to be a good, hard firm surface are Gary Kirsten, four runs short of 400 in the series and Daryll Cullinan who has a chance to score three centuries in a series against England, joining Herbie Taylor (1922/23) and Alan Melville (1947) as the only South Africans to manage this feat.

Recognised as now having one of the three fastest surfaces in the Southern Hemisphere, Australian captain Steve Waugh suggested there is not too much difference between the pave of the pitches at the Waca in Perth and Centurion along with Brisbane.

Hilbert Smit, owner of the company which co-ordinates the preparation of pitches at Centurion, feels the weather conditions have been ideal since the start of the week for what he regards as an ideal surface for the five days.

Although it looked a touch on the brown side with some yellow Tuesday afternoon, there is none of the dead grass which makes for a tennis ball type bounce. It should have true bounce for the bowlers, which helps the strokemakers in both sides. "There is unlikely to be much moisture by the time the game starts on Friday," he said. "It should have good bounce as well as carry, which is what they want for a good game lasting five days."

Edward Mohlabeng, who has been the senior groundsman at Centurion since April, spent a couple of hours rolling the surface before lunch Tuesday and said it would need more rolling over the next 24 hours.

Rushdie Magiet and the rest of the South African selectors are likely to inspect the conditions Thursday morning when South Africa have their second practice session.

England may have a light fielding run Wednesday but will concentrate more on their final preparation tomorrow afternoon.

The England's team management have stood by their commitment to the players whom the skipper, Nasser Hussain, says are "Test squad players".

He hit back at what he felt was negative comment from some British media reports of the side repeating the comments made after the Newlands defeat by an innings and 37 runs.

"You have to go with your gut feeling . . . That is what I am trying to do with everyone I have picked," said Hussain, not the sort to hoist the white flag. "As for the batting we will be sticking to the Test players and the same with the bowlers."