South Africa coach Mickey Arthur expects his lineup to showcase its ”brave” new approach to cricket as it chases victory at all costs in the third Test against Australia.
”If we go home having lost two-nil trying to give ourselves the option of winning, we’re going to he happy with that,” Arthur said on Wednesday. ”We’re going to give ourselves the option of winning this Test match, to go home one-all.”
Arthur said he and 24-year-old captain Graeme Smith were trying to instill a sense of adventure and excitement into South African cricket, and it was taking hold.
”We’ve always been known for our discipline and out durability, but we want to grow the brand and we want to become a [team] that’s particularly nice to watch as well,” he said.
”We’ve got the next two days to really express ourselves and go a long way toward transforming the team into a more braver outfit.”
Smith made his intentions clear when he decided to bat in damp and overcast conditions ideally suited to his seam bowlers after winning the toss on Monday.
That meant South Africa wouldn’t have to bat last — unless it was way ahead and was in a position to enforce the follow-on — and would blunt the impact of Australian legspinners Shane Warne and Stuart MacGill, who revel in deteriorating conditions in the fourth innings.
South Africa’s conservative instincts took over for a while, with good reason, as the tourists took almost two days to amass 451 for nine before declaring with 15 overs remaining on day two.
Charl Langeveldt took two wickets and Andre Nel took one to have Australia reeling at 54-3 overnight, but Australian captain Ricky Ponting rescued the home team on Wednesday with his 27th Test century.
The South Africans were again in a position to deliver a knockout blow after Ponting’s dismissal triggered an Australian middle-order collapse, with three wickets falling for four runs.
Nel was on a hat-trick after dismissing Andrew Symonds and Shane Warne on consecutive balls to make Australia 226-7, still 25 runs behind the follow-on target with three wickets in hand.
But Adam Gilchrist returned to form with a boundary-laced 86 as he galvanised the tailenders and Australia added 133 runs for the last three wickets and reduced South Africa’s first-innings lead to 92.
The Proteas extended the lead to 96 overall just before stumps, when opener AB De Villiers was out.
Arthur said with nine wickets in hand, the South Africans wanted to add at least another 200 runs and put all the pressure back on Australia.
No team has scored 300 in the fourth innings to win a Test match at the Sydney Cricket Ground.
”We don’t want to be tentative,” said Arthur. ”We were a little bit more traditional to set the game up, but we felt that was needed at the time.
”Tomorrow we feel we can express ourselves a bit more, in order to buy ourselves more time with the ball. We’re going to enjoy it.” – Sapa-AP