SA must save honour, ranking

2008-09-02 22:44

Altus Momberg

Cardiff - The weather gods will have to co-operate if England are to overtake South Africa on the International Cricket Council's ODI rankings on Wednesday evening.

South Africa are still ranked second, but following their weak performances here, England are breathing down their neck.

If England can win here on Wednesday and thereby clinch a 5-0 series whitewash, they will overtake the Proteas in these rankings.

But whether there will be a long enough period of play remains to be seen. Not only are thunder storms forecast for Wednesday, but it has also been raining here over the past few days.

The field was too wet for practice on Tuesday because of all the hard rain on Monday, and while the sun shone at times on Tuesday, the covers never came off the pitch.

Nor is the drainage anything to write home about. The grounds, Sophia Gardens, are situated on the banks of the Taff River and the water takes a long time to drain away.

Glamorgan, the county here, intends digging up the grounds at the end of the season in order to install a new drainage system. The field will be the venue for the first Ashes Test against Australia next year.

Highly controversial

The decision to allocate such a sought-after Test to one of the smaller grounds was highly controversial, and English and Welsh cricket bosses cannot afford for the Test to be affected by bad weather and bad drainage.

But that will not help any of the teams on Wednesday.

Proteas spinner Johan Botha, one of the few visitors who are enjoying a good series, said on Tuesday they are determined to end the series on a high note.

"We definitely don't want to return home 0-5 down and will give our all in order to win the last game," said Botha.

"However, we haven't really been able prepare ourselves, because the weather has wrecked our plans. Hopefully one of the players can produce an excellent performance and get the side going," said Botha.

It is very difficult, however, to see how matters are likely to change at this stage, as England have been playing outstanding cricket.

It is one of the old adages of sport that in the last match of a long tour a team already has one foot on the plane. But the Proteas have been playing as if they have had one foot on the plane for the past few weeks.

The Proteas will also have to find an answer to the English bowling attack. Up to this point in the series no South African batsman has yet been able to stay in long enough to make a telling contribution.

 TV: from 15:00 (SA time)

- Die Burger