In a week where some are worried about the delay in Test
Cricket’s world championships the focus has switched back to top class cricket.
South Africa and Australia have always produced classic encounters between them
but few recently are likely to be as good, or as dramatic, as the first test
between these two.
After what seemed like a competitive effort from both sides
with resulted in Australia making 284 in their first innings (let’s not forget
that much of that was down to Michael Clarke’s classy century) we had one of
the most bowling dominated days of Test Cricket in recent years, when 23
wickets fell for just 294 runs, a South African collapse (down from 49-2 to 96
all out) being “bettered” by a near record low of just 47 (and it could have
been much worse when they were 21-9) for the Australians, who could never
recover as South Africa held their nerve and won the test in what seemed like comfortable
style.
It’s not hard to see a much improved performance in batting
from both sides although one still feels that it will be decided by the bowlers
at a venue which has seen 10 results in the last 10 tests here despite all of
them being weather affected, which makes the draw less appealing given the quality
that the two sides carry.
There’s rain forecast again but I’d rather take a chance on
the result for either team, that team being South Africa. Of course Australia
aren’t as bad as the scorecard in Cape Town suggests and they’ll fancy their
chances to bounce back but South Africa’s impressive pace unit can match the
likes of Johnson and debutant Pat Cummings, while Graeme Smith and co’s
battling (if standing under pressure) can hold the charge of the Wallabies and
go onto a series win.
Advice
2 pts South Africa (7/4 Sportingbet)
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