South Africa v India - 1st Test and Series Preview

Yesterday’s Ashes humiliation may have been a sign of an England side in decline and an Australia side looking set for better things but there’s no doubting about the world’s best test team and an increasingly rare South Africa appearance can end in yet another victory for Graeme Smith’s side as they take on India in what’s likely to be a fascinating but frustratingly truncated series.

Test appearances – or appearances in general – seem to be few and far between for the Proteas - but the results don’t lie and South Africa’s heavy defeat in the UAE in October was their first since December 2011 when Sri Lanka won here and their first failure to win in 6 matches since a 1-0 win to clinch a tight series against Australia; They haven’t lost a series since Australia toured in 2009.

They were massively shown up in that first test but bounced back in exemplary style to post a dominating win in the second test of that series and the last time they played here, in January, were dominant 3-0 winners in a test series against largely the same Pakistan side that held them to a 1-1 series draw in October.

Hashim Amla, returning from paternity leave, bolsters a batting order with three of the first 5 five batsmen on the ICC’s World Test Ranking, and he and AB De Villers – Durban’s top runscorer - were second and third in the runscoring charts for the recent 2-0 ODI series victory behind specialist Quintin De Kock. The Graeme Smith and Zaheer Khan relationship has been well documented although India’s paceman is likely to have his hands full with plenty of South Africa’s other attack whether Smith struggles or not. It is likely to be a tight race between the two for top batsman honours, with Amla shading the verdict on home soil.

The last time we were watching India play any cricket it felt as if just one person was playing and Sachin Tendulkar’s final tests were ever the occasion with the little master leaving the stage on some sort of high but this is all about India’s new generation of youngsters following on from an Indian side that has had some of the great batsmen of previous years.

Chief amongst the new generation has been Chestwjar Pujara, the long term replacement for the famed ‘Wall” Raul Dravid who has already shown similar composure and technique in 15 appearances, and the explosive Virat Kohli, already a legend of the one day game, is set to replace the little master himself if applying the same skills to the test arena; Vijay and Dhawan have both made solid starts to life as test openers and Ajinkya Rahane – who score 1089 runs in his second Ranji season for Mumbai – all have the look of long term prospects. With his experience of overseas conditions in a tour against Australia – where he did score a century – Kohli is likely to come to the forefront but his poor ODI series does not bode well and Pujara’s more test oriented playing style could see him take top honours with MS Dohni also possible value given his experience in a competitive market.

However the personnel isn’t India’s main problem here; While they’ve won their last 3 test matches, they’ve all been on home ground in India, and against opposition who aren’t a patch on South Africa (Australia having been in turmoil and completely unprepared for the spin onslaught, while New Zealand and West Indies’ have notably poor travelling records). Away from home – as many have been quick to point out – India have lost 8-0 in two series away to England and Australia where quick, accurate bowling and swing both ways tore through their batting order and a lack of quick bowling resources saw them swatted away.

The Proteas pace attack has been their main weapon for the duration of their stay as No.1 side and stopping Dale Steyn, Morne Morkel and Vernon Philanderer will prove key to any hopes India have of returning with a positive result. Steyn has topped the wicket taker on the last three tours that favoured fast bowling and is worth supporting to top the pace charts again playing at two venues which seem tailor made for his game.

  

The previous drubbings came with a much changed side to this current outfit which is essentially a new elven taking on it’s first serious challenge and while there’s definitely promise in there it remains to be seen how they handle a hard, bouncy wicket with plenty of bowler assistance at the Wanderers. South Africa made only 253 in their first innings here in January against Pakistan but Dale Steyn’s 6-8 on day 2 (he took 11 wickets in the match) swung the match and any of the three specialist quicks will be the toughest test India has faced so far. Even with rain about, Sportingbet’s 10/11 for the first test is worth taking.

Advice - 1st Test

3 pts South Africa (10/11 Sportingbet)

Advice – Series

2 pts Dale Steyn top wicket taker (11/8 Ladbrokes)

1 pt Hashim Amla top South Africa batsman (4/1 general)


1 pt Chesteswar Pujara top India Batsman (4/1 general)