Rain ruins Proteas' strategy
2008-08-19 22:05
Altus Momberg
Chester-le-Street - Heavy rain during the past few days has resulted in the Twenty20 match between the South African cricket team and England being called off a day before the match.
The teams were due to meet here on Wednesday before launching into a series of five one-day internationals in Leeds on Friday.
However, match umpire Roshan Mahanama and the groundsman decided on Tuesday that the ground was too wet and that no play would be possible on Wednesday.
This made an end to the Proteas' plans to use the match to prepare for the ODIs.
The South Africans have been unable to train outdoors all week. Their coach, Mickey Arthur, said on Tuesday they had planned to try out their bowling strategy in the Twenty20 match.
"The one-day matches are important. A Twenty20 match is often a lottery and it does not have the same impact as a series of one-day internationals. We wanted to use this match to prepare for the ODIs," Arthur said.
The rain also prevented Jacques Kallis from proving his critics wrong. He would have opened the SA innings with captain Graeme Smith on Wednesday.
The idea was for Kallis to anchor the innings while the others chased runs.
Technical problems
"Jacques is our best player and if the ball is going to move about we want him to build the innings," the coach said before the match was cancelled.
Kallis has just experienced the worst Test series, bar one, of his career, scoring only 104 runs in seven innings against England.
He has some technical problems and the England players feel he is vulnerable to fast, full-pitched bowling.
Arthur agrees that Kallis is under pressure to show he is a better Twenty20 player than many people believe.
Kallis was furious when he was omitted from the SA squad for last year's Twenty20 world championships. He then scored five centuries in his next seven Test innings to prove a point.
He was one of the most expensive players in the Indian Premier League earlier this year. The Bangalore Royal Challengers paid $900 000 for his services.
He will now drop back to his usual No 3 position so that Herschelle Gibbs can partner Smith at the top of the order on Friday.