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Action moves to the Adelaide Oval where Australia and South Africa go head to head for the second Test match starting from Thursday.
We’ll bring you live scores of the action throughout the first Test match, with the match starting at 11.00am AEDT from November 22.
The second Test will be played at Adelaide’s new construction site – the very pretty Oval currently under big redevelopment.
Australia’s preparations for the Test have been thrown a little off with the Shane Watson will-he-won’t-he saga.
He was added to the squad, had to endure a series of fitness tests before he admitted that he wouldn’t be bowling in the game, only to be dumped out of the squad.
What this means is that Australia’s top-order will remain the same; Dave Warner and Rob Quiney retain their places in the squad, Ed Cowan will look to build on his maiden Test century while Ricky Ponting hunts for his first run in the series.
With Clarke and Michael Hussey showing fine form on an admittedly placid pitch, they could be in the right frame of mind going into a game at Adelaide where first innings scores have usually been on a higher side.
The other question-mark was around the make-up of the bowling line-up after a poor effort with the ball, but the selectors have backed the trio of Peter Siddle, Ben Hilfenhaus and James Pattinson ahead of Mitchell Starc. Nathan Lyon had an effective Test match and will take up the sole spinner’s slot.
South Africa were forced to bring in a new batsman after the injury to JP Duminy. Faf du Plessis is most likely to take up that spot.
With Jacques Rudolph continuing to struggle for runs, his place in the team could have been untenable had to not been for the Duminy injury. He retains his place in a side which will see Hashim Amla and Jacques Kallis being the flag-bearers of run-scoring.
Imran Tahir will be drafted into the playing 11 with Rory Kleinveldt expected to sit out after a very poor game. The onus, however, will be on whether Dale Steyn, Morne Morkel and Vernon Philander can rediscover their mojo.
The psychological advantage, whatever its worth, lies with Australia after the way they came back and made South Africa graft through the last couple of sessions but it is difficult to see a powerful bowling line-up like South Africa’s, to fail twice in a row.
The flat nature of the Adelaide Oval may blunt the bowlers in the first innings, but things happened very quickly in the second. Both teams will do well to remind themselves of this, especially after getting into difficult situations against the opposition batsmen.
To make things worse, boundaries have been shortened – losing six metres on the eastern side and 10m from the southern end.
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