Agencies
New Delhi, Dec 2: South Africa will play for pride while the Indians would eye their biggest margin of series victory over the visitors when the fourth and final Test begins here Thursday. The South Africans however, start on the backfoot once more with pace spearhead Dale Steyn ruled out in a game where pacers are expected to get some early help from the pitch.
Steyn’s lingering groin strain means that through the entire series, the South Africans have never started with their best pace combination. At Mohali, it was the turn of Morne Morkel to sit out and since then Steyn has been a passenger with the team.
However, even then, while ruling out Steyn’s presence at the Feroz Shah Kotla here, the South Africans feel that they start the match on an even keel. “Yes, Steyn’s absence means a lot to us, but life and the game has to go on. You can’t cry over an injured player,” said South African skipper Hashim Amla here Wednesday.
For the South African skipper and his team the match is of great importance, simply because in three weeks time they face a rejuvenated England at home. “It would do us a world of good, increase our confidence before the England series if we win,” said Amla. “And 1-2 is always better than 0-3. But frankly speaking we haven’t been able to play the way we expect ourselves to play. So we have to improve on that front.
“When we won the T20 and the ODI series we expected good results in the Tests also. But we have been outplayed by India and now is the time to achieve something,” he added.
In Steyn’s absence, the visitors are expected to field Marchant de Lange, who had an extended session at the nets, Wednesday. They may also replace off-spinner Simon Harmer with paceman Kyle Abbott as Kotla always helps pacers in the first 90-100 minutes of the morning sessions. In that case JP Duminy will don the role of the offie.
It remains to be seen, however, what the Indians do with their combination with the series already sealed up. At Nagpur they opted for an extra batsman in Rohit Sharma in place of Varun Aaron. But with the nature of Kotla wicket, they will need someone to partner Ishant Sharma. Whether they opt for all-rounder Stuart Binny or go back to the pace of Aaron, is something they are yet to decide on.
“We will decide on that on the morning of the match,” said manager Ravi Shastri. “But we won’t go in for too many changes. We wouldn’t like too much chopping and changing to a winning combination,” he added.
But then more than the cricketers, the cynosure of all eyes will be the Kotla track. With the ICC coming down heavily on the Nagpur pitch, calling it as ‘poor’, the wicket here will be under scrutiny. However, judging by the expressions of both the skippers, it will definitely not be another top-loose track and it will definitely last more than three days.
Welcome to the normal ‘World of Cricket’.
