South Africa pre-tour practice at Centurion (20 October 1998)

20 October 1998

South Africa pre-tour practice at Centurion

Trevor Chesterfield

CENTURION (South Africa) - South Africa's early pre-World Cup plans, which include the ICC knock-out tournament in Bangladesh, are being forged at Centurion Park today where Hansie Cronje's tourists are having practice match.

Supplemented by several Northerns players along with Paul Adams and Herschelle Gibbs, the match is seen as an ideal opportunity for a "serious middle net" the coach Bob Woolmer admitted yesterday.

"I want to use the game to help hone the skills as well as use it as a one-day match situation," Woolmer said at SuperSport Centurion last night after a two-hour net session.

While the net practice was a bit of a loosener the practice match will be a lot more serious the coach intimated with a slow surface being provided to simulate as near as possible the low and slow conditions the side can expect to find in Dhaka where the nine-nation tournament starts on Thursday with a qualifier game between New Zealand and Zimbabwe.

"I wanted the players to have the net as it is the first time most of them will have been together for a month and it gave me a chance to concentrate on the players skills," he said.

"The match will also go a long way in helping me work on players skills in a game-plan situation. It's ideal for what we want in terms of early pre-tournament conditions," said the man who may have only nine months to run on his contract as the South African squad coach, but is quick to pick up any faults.

He was not prepared to speculate whether Mike Rindel and Darryl Cullinan would open the batting together as nothing had been decided on the composition of the two sides apart from Northern ms lending five players to help out during the match.

So, as Allan Donald admitted he was "playing as little as possible and resting up" to save himself for the West Indies tour and Shaun Pollock had a good look at the practice session, Woolmer was quietly dispensing technical advice.

Peter Kirsten, one of the technical experts employed by the UCB as a batting coach, also popped in and agreed the net session had been worthwhile for the players. What pleased the Northerns coach was that four young Titans fast and seam bowlers added their skills to the session.

"I'd say they learnt quite a bit here," said Kirsten.

Pierre Joubert, David Townsend, Pierre de Bruyn and Mark Conyers, three of whom are all likely to form the Northerns B squad pace and seam attack for the UCB Bowl games in Cape Town this weekend, were given a rare opportunity to bowl to some of South Africa's top batsmen.

The five senior Northerns players involved in today's game are Mark Davis, Martin van Jaarsveld, Rudi Bryson, Greg Smith and all-rounder Nico Martin.

Naturally Kirsten sees the outing as valuable practice for the two weekend Standard Bank League games against Easterns in Benoni and Eastern Province in Centurion on Sunday.

As it is the left-arm fast bowler Greg Smith has been included in the Northerns squad as the replacement for all-rounder Steve Elworthy who heads for Bangladesh with the national side tomorrow. And as expected Deon Jordaan is the replacement for Mike Rindel, also heading for Bangladesh as a late inclusion for the injured Gary Kirsten.

Source :: Trevor Chesterfield, Pretoria News