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Changes for Centurion
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Sat, 28 Mar 2009 20:00
South Africa and Australia are both likely to make changes to their final teams for the second Standard Bank Pro20 match at Supersport Park on Sunday.
While winning the match is a priority for both teams, they also have
one eye on the ICC Twenty20 (T20) World Cup in England in June. For
South Africa, it will be the last time they will play T20 cricket
before the World Cup, while Australia have one T20 match against
Pakistan in Dubai in May.
Proteas coach Mickey Arthur, said when the T20 squad was announced
everyone would play in at least one match. The South African players
who still have to make an appearance are Justin Ontong and Johann Louw,
as well as newcomers Yusuf Abdullah and Roelof van der Merwe.
Captain Johan Botha. said South Africa's victory in the first Pro20
match at the Wanderers on Friday night would give them a slight edge
going into the second match and provide some momentum for the
one-day
international (ODI) series starting in Durban on Friday.
"On Sunday we want to play a lot better than we did last night,"
said Botha.
"These are the only T20 matches we are likely to play before the
World Cup, so we will try out some different combinations."
Botha said all-rounder Albie Morkel, who together with Mark Boucher
got South Africa out of trouble on 83 for five, and secured the victory
with a partnership of 58 off 33 balls, would play a vital role in the
second T20 and also in the ODI series.
"He's a world class player and he showed us all summer what he can
do," he said. "He's going to be very important to us, both as a
batsman and a bowler."
Australia will probably bring Nathan Bracken, Nathan Hauritz, Marcus
North, Callum Ferguson and Ben Laughlin into their team for the second
Pro20 match.
Australian captain Ricky Ponting said he was bitterly disappointed
Australia lost the
first match after being in a position where they
could have won, but would be giving some other players an opportunity
to show what they could do.
"If we'd been completely blown out of the park, then I wouldn't have
been so disappointed," he said. "(Brett) Geeves and (Shane) Harwood
have been some of the top players in domestic cricket this summer, so
they deserved a chance.
They'll learn a lot from the experience - they
are bowling to good players on good wickets, and it just goes to show
that in limited overs cricket, you've got to get every ball right or
you'll be hit all over the park.
"It's all about giving a few other guys some exposure. We've got
the World Cup not too far away, so the more games we can get into some
of these guys, the better they will be prepared."
He confirmed that Bracken would play on Sunday. Botha said he
believed Bracken would have a major impact on his return to the
Australian team.
"He's probably one of the top one-day bowlers in world cricket," he
said.
"In Australia, he was their best bowler by far, so he's definitely
going to play a vital role on Sunday. We'll have to find ways to
combat that and to score off him."