Shaun Pollock, South Africa's leading wicket-taker, was set to take his place in the South African team for the second Test against Australia at Kingsmead today after bowling without any injury worries in the nets on Wednesday.
"He's fit and he will be playing," team spokesman Gerald de Kock said.
Pollock missed the first Test in Cape Town last week, which Australia won by seven wickets inside three days, with a back strain.
Pollock has taken a record 385 wickets in 97 Tests for South Africa and his skill and experience was missed in Cape Town on a pitch which gave inordinate help to the seam bowlers.
Durban resident Pollock has yet to play in a Test against Australia in his home town -- and has only played in two home Tests over three series against the world champions. He broke down in the second Test of the 1996-1997 series and did not play in any of the matches in 2001-2002 because of injury.
The Kingsmead pitch is expected to offer pace and bounce, with batsmen likely to face a tough challenge on the first two days.
In recent years it has become easier for batting the longer a game goes on, but with overcast and humid weather expected it could offer something to the bowlers throughout.
After a batting failure in the first Test, with no home batsman reaching 50, South Africa will be seeking a major improvement to avoid surrendering the series with one match still to play -- a fate which has befallen them in the previous two home series against Australia. In the previous Test between the two sides in Durban, South Africa scored a record 340 in the fourth innings to win by five wickets in 2001-2002, although it was a "dead rubber" third Test of a series in which Australia won the first two matches.
Mohammad Rafique's fine all-round effort helped Bangladesh to a 20-run win against Kenya in the third one-day international yesterday.
Rafique scored a brisk 33 and then grabbed 5-47 as the home side clinched the series with a match still remaining.
Electing to bat first, Bangladesh scored 231, which proved enough to continue their winning streak after having already taken an unbeatable 2-0 lead. Kenya were bowled out for 211 in reply.
Opener Shahriar Nafees and middle-order batsman Alok Kapali slammed fine half-centuries to boost the home side.
Bayer 04 Leverkusen go into today’s match at TSG 1899 Hoffenheim stung from their first league defeat in 16 months. Leverkusen were beaten 3-2 at home by RB Leipzig before the international break, the first loss since May last year for the reigning league and cup champions. While any defeat, particularly against a likely title rival, would have disappointed coach Xabi Alonso, the way in which it happened would be most concerning. Just as they did in the Supercup against VfB Stuttgart and in the league opener to Borussia Moenchengladbach, Leverkusen scored first, but were pegged back. However, while Leverkusen rallied late to
If all goes well when the biggest marathon field ever gathered in Australia races 42km through the streets of Sydney on Sunday, World Marathon Majors (WMM) will soon add a seventh race to the elite series. The Sydney Marathon is to become the first race since Tokyo in 2013 to join long-established majors in New York, London, Boston, Berlin and Chicago if it passes the WMM assessment criteria for the second straight year. “We’re really excited for Sunday to arrive,” race director Wayne Larden told a news conference in Sydney yesterday. “We’re prepared, we’re ready. All of our plans look good on
The lights dimmed and the crowd hushed as Karoline Kristensen entered for her performance. However, this was no ordinary Dutch theater: The temperature was 80°C and the audience naked apart from a towel. Dressed in a swimsuit and to the tune of emotional music, the 21-year-old Kristensen started her routine, performed inside a large sauna, with a bed of hot rocks in the middle. For a week this month, a group of wellness practitioners, called “sauna masters,” are gathering at a picturesque health resort in the Netherlands to compete in this year’s Aufguss world sauna championships. The practice takes its name from a
When details from a scientific experiment that could have helped clear Russian figure skater Kamila Valieva landed at the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), the leader of the organization’s reaction was unequivocal: “We have to stop that urgently,” he wrote. No mention of the test ever became public and Valieva’s defense at the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) went on without it. What effect the information could have had on Valieva’s case is unclear, but without it, the skater, then 15 years old, was eventually disqualified from the 2022 Winter Olympics after testing positive for a banned heart medication that would later