South Africa and Sri Lanka are set to play two frontline spinners apiece on what promises to be a turning wicket at Centurion Park for their Champions Trophy opener today.
The hosts, the International Cricket Council’s top-ranked one-day team, have off-spinner Johan Botha and left-armer Roelof van der Merwe while Sri Lanka will counter with off-spinner Muttiah Muralitharan and the unorthodox Ajantha Mendis.
“In the last year-and-a-half, Johan Botha has become one of the best one-day bowlers in the game and he’s an integral part of our team. He and Roelof make a good combination,” South Africa captain Graeme Smith told a news conference yesterday.
“Murali has troubled a lot of teams and he has an incredible record, but it will be interesting to see how Sri Lanka fit both him and Mendis into their combination,” he said.
“But our record speaks for itself on how we have played spin around the world in the last few years and we have some good ideas about Mendis. Other teams have been very aggressive against him and that seems like a good tactic,” Smith said.
Sri Lanka captain Kumar Sangakkara said his side had a potent bowling attack that did not rely solely on spin to create problems for batsmen.
“We have two of the best spinners in the game, one of them the best ever [Muralitharan], but we also have good fast bowlers, who are regularly bowling over 140kph, and all-rounders,” Sangakkara said.
“The batsmen are on form, the bowlers are all firing well, so we just need to produce some match-winning performances,” he said.
South African fast bowler Dale Steyn said no team will match the hosts in the tournament.
“I believe that this team has played fantastic one-day and Test cricket in the last year and we have really hit our straps,” Steyn said.
“If the team play to their potential, and this might sound cocky, I really believe no side can match us at the Champions Trophy,” he said.
Steyn does not give Sri Lanka much hope of causing an upset in the opening fixture.
“They have not been here for a long time apart from those players who came for the Indian Premier League and that was during winter when the ball was not doing a lot and it was Twenty20 cricket,” he said.
The Champions Trophy features the world’s top eight teams, split into two groups of four. The top two in each group progress to the semi-finals.
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