DURBAN, South Africa, 25 December 2004 — England will seek to take advantage of an unsettled South African team in the second Test starting at Kingsmead tomorrow.
A seven-wicket win in the first Test in Port Elizabeth gave England a significant edge in the five-match series. England went in short of match practice and lost the toss but still dominated most of the game.
England captain Michael Vaughan said he expected his team to improve. They had not played to their full potential in Port Elizabeth where some of their cricket had been “sloppy”.
While England, who have won a record eight Tests in a row, have a settled team and are playing with confidence, South Africa are in a state of disarray at the end of a year in which they have plunged from second to sixth in the world Test rankings. Captain Graeme Smith bemoaned the lack of stability in South African cricket following several changes in key personnel, including a coach and convenor of selectors who are both interim appointees.
In a newspaper column yesterday, Smith said: “We desperately need to share a common goal and purpose in everything from racial representation to playing style to administrative structures. As far as the team is concerned, we simply can’t succeed with ever-changing views on who, and why, certain players should play ahead of others.”
A squad of 14 assembled in Durban yesterday with uncertainty over who would make the final eleven. Herschelle Gibbs is likely to return to partner Smith as an opening batsman but will have to pass a fitness Test after playing only one game, scoring just four runs, since suffering a right little finger ligament injury on November 17. Another key fitness issue is whether Jacques Kallis will be able to bowl. He played as a batsman only in the first Test because of an ankle injury.
Selection convenor Haroon Lorgat said he was confident Kallis would be able to bowl but Smith was more cautious yesterday, saying: “Jacques probably won’t be 100 percent by the start.”
If Kallis can bowl, home town batsman Hashim Amla is likely to bolster a batting order whose shortage of specialists was exposed by the disciplined England bowling attack in the first Test.
