White Lightning ready to have big bite after stomach strain

“After a month off, it’s very hard coming back and two one-dayers, where you don’t even bowl your full complement of overs, is not great preparation. It would have been ideal to have a four-day game,†said Donald.

Donald’s only recent action has come in the fifth and sixth one-day internationals against Sri Lanka earlier this week. He likened his current situation to the first Test against England at the Wanderers in 1999, where he returned from injury and was “not in great shapeâ€.

He said then-captain, Hansie Cronje, had told him to “just go out and bowl†and he had ended up with 11 wickets. “A nice haul in this Test would do my confidence a world ofgood,†he added.

The Centurion pitch is likely to be similar to the playing surface in Cape Town and the bouncy conditions should be in the 34-year-old paceman’s favour.

South Africa won the first Test in just three days and Sri Lanka seem to have little chance of squaring the series. But the tourists’ Australian coach Dav Whatmore won’t accept a defeatist attitude from his players. “If you go into a game thinking you’re going to lose, you might as well not go out there. I just won’t tolerate that,†he said.

Whatmore said more of his players were starting to stand up and be counted and he hoped to see that approach spread in the final match of a tour that has so far produced just one win in eight matches, two Tests and six one-day internationals. Perhaps significantly, the one victory on Wednesday night in the final one-day match prevented a South African rout.

“Confidence is growing a little bit, as evidenced by that one-day victory,†said Whatmore, adding that the team would have to “fight a lot bloody harder with the bat (than in Cape Town) and take every catch†to have any chance of winning.

South Africa have Boeta Dippenaar in the side for injured opening batsman Gary Kirsten, while Eastern Province all-rounder Justin Kemp makes his Test debut in place of Lance Klusener who is out for up to six weeks with a knee cartilage injury. “I feel very, very happy. It’s obviously a great dream and I can’t believe it’s happened so quickly,†the 23-year-old said of his elevation to the Test side. He played in the last two one-day internationals against the tourists.

He said there was a real desire to make up for Wednesday’s defeat, which cost South Africa the chance of equalling West Indies’ world record of 11 consecutive wins in the shortened form of the game, with a victory at Centurion. “The guys were very, very disappointed. We lost the game more than they won it.â€Kemp is determined to play his part in the push for victory. “It’s a great opportunity, and I want to make the best of it,†he said.

The tourists may have a problem in the bowling department with Chaminda Vaas doubtful after injuring his groin during the one-day victory at the Wanderers on Wednesday. “Vaasie’s probably 50-50. He’ll have another examination later today (Friday) and we might even delay the decision on him until the morning if it seems like he’s responding okay.â€

TEAMS
SOUTH AFRICA: Boeta Dippenaar, Herschelle Gibbs, Jacques Kallis, Daryll Cullinan, Neil McKenzie, Mark Boucher, Nicky Boje, Justin Kemp, Shaun Pollock (capt), Allan Donald, Makhaya Ntini.

SRI LANKA (from): Sanath Jayasuriya (capt), Marvan Atapattu,Russel Arnold, Aravinda de Silva, Kumar Sangakkara, Avishka Gunawardene, Tillekeratne Dilshan, Romesh Kaluwitharana, Chaminda Vaas, Nuwan Zoysa, Dilhara Fernando, Muttiah Muralitharan, Pramodya Wickramasinghe, Kaushalya Weeraratn.