Published: Feb 03, 2014, 07:40 PM (IST)
Edited: Feb 03, 2014, 07:41 PM (IST)
Feb 3, 2014
After Australia’s four-day warm up match against the South Africa Invitational XI got called off at Potchefstroom due to heavy rains, the visitors are now hoping that they have sunny conditions ahead of the first Test match against South Africa starting off at Centurion on Tuesday.
Heavy rains have been a cause of problem for the visitor’s preparations and the tour game getting called off may have robbed them of valuable match practice before facing the Proteas reported sport.msn.
Though Australia are looking to topple the world’s best Test side in their own backyard still coach Darren Lehmann feels that his side will try to use the most of the conditions at the Centurion.
“I’m looking forward to bowling on these [South African] wickets again … I do feel a lot more comfortable in these conditions because I feel that they’re very similar to back home,” said Australian pacer Mitchell Johnson who is awaiting the prospect of a green top being laid out at the Centurion.
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“The wickets over here are very good for fast bowling generally so, usually, you get a bit more pace and bounce,” added Johnson.
Johnson feels that the Centurion wicket is one of the fastest ones in world cricket and said that he will fully try to exploit the pace-friendly conditions offered to him during the tour.
When queried about South African coach Russell Domingo publicly requesting for pace-friendly pitches throughout the series, Johnson replied,” That’s fine by us. They’ve got a pretty unbelievable attack and so do we … if they produce wickets like that, then there’s going to be some very exciting cricket.”
