DURBAN, South Africa, (Reuters) – Australia will look to take advantage of the absence of experienced South Africa all- rounder Jacques Kallis when the teams begin their five-match one-day series today.
Kallis suffered a groin strain while bowling in the third test in Cape Town and failed a fitness test on the eve of the first match in Durban but the hosts will be boosted by the return of their captain Graeme Smith.
“Kallis is such an important guy to their side as far as overall structure and balance goes, that when you lose a guy like that it generally leaves a big hole in any side,” Australia captain Ricky Ponting told a news conference yesterday.
“Every team’s focus going into a one-day game is to make use of the new ball and take early wickets and try and put opposition middle-orders under pressure, especially one that has a class player like Kallis out.
“If we do that well we might be able to expose the length of their tail.”
Smith said that South Africa’s top order would be able to cope with whatever Australian fast bowlers Mitchell Johnson and Nathan Bracken threw at them.
“We bat deep enough, but you obviously want your top three to take as much responsibility as possible,” Smith said. “Our top three has all had success and it would be nice if we could make it count at Kingsmead.”
South Africa convincingly won the one-day series 4-1 in Australia in January.
“The last series we played against South Africa, we felt that our one-day cricket was a little bit off the mark and a little bit off of being were it needed to be,” Ponting said.
“We have addressed some of those issues in our meetings and our training, and now when big moments come in games, we need to stand up and execute better than we did in Australia,” Ponting said.
South Africa won both recent Twenty20 internationals against Australia.
“We have brought in a little bit of a positive attitude and some good cricket, especially from the younger guys in the Pro20 format, so hopefully we can carry that on into the one-day format,” Smith said.
