South Africa likely to rotate in Grenada
South African captain Shaun Pollock put a day of travel headaches behind him as he considered the challenging awaiting his team on Grenada, the ninth port of call for the tourists in a little over two months
05-May-2001
South African captain Shaun Pollock put a day of travel headaches behind him
as he considered the challenging awaiting his team on Grenada, the
ninth port of call for the tourists in a little over two months. South
Africa meet the West Indies in the third and fourth one-day internationals
on the island on Saturday and Sunday.
The team only reached their beach-side hotel outside the capital St
George's at 10.30pm on Thursday. The squad were due to travel from
Antigua via Barbados and Trinidad, but delays forced a diversion direct to
Grenada, an unplanned move which may have upset a few passengers, but also
avoided total chaos.
"It's going to be hard work playing back-to-back games," Pollock said as
he made his way to voluntary nets. "We've done it in Australia before but we
don't often do it."
The heavy workload for many of the senior players is almost certain to
mean that some of the players who have yet to feature in the series will get
a run-out in Grenada, although Pollock himself is cheerfully resigned to
five more games before a well-earned break.
"As much as we'd like to win both the games here, we also have an
opportunity to rest a few guys and give opprtunities to others. We have a
core of players which is unlikely to change, but we can rotate the other
guys.
"I don't know exactly what we'll do just yet, but we need to keep some
freshness in the camp. But it's difficult to rotate the key players.
"I know I've got five matches left, but I've got three months rest after
that!"
One of the changes within the side may see Pollock try and capitalise on
his superb form with the bat. He was in fact down to come in at number six
in the second one-dayer in Antigua, but was not required to come to the
crease as Herschelle Gibbs and Jacques Kallis lead South Africa to a
resounding eight wicket win to level the series.
Neil McKenzie will have a fitness test on his hamstring injury, but is likely to be given an extra day to find full fitness, in the
process allowing Boeta Dippenaar another chance in the middle-order.
There are also likely to be changes in the bowling attack, with Roger
Telemachus and Allan Donald both sitting out one of the games this weekend.
Makhaya Ntini and Justin Kemp are the men most likely to profit.
South Africa (possible): Gary Kirsten, Herschelle Gibbs, Jacques Kallis,
Jonty Rhodes, Boeta Dippenaar, Lance Klusener, Mark Boucher, Shaun Pollock,
Justin Ontong, Roger Telemachus, Makhaya Ntini.