Australia in South Africa: 1st One Day: Preview

South Africa will try to retain their first spot in the ICC ODI Rankings by winning the 5 match one day series against Australia starting today. Australia conceded their first spot to South Africa after they lost both the one day and the test series in the host series prior to this tour. Australia came out strong in the test series and regained the first spot in the rankings for Test's. It just seems that every time these two teams go head to head, the No. 1 Ranking is always up for grabs.



South Africa took the top ODI spot thanks to their 4-1 victory in Australia in January but to retain their new status they need to stop Australia winning this five-game series.Captain Graeme Smith will return after a injury to the right hand, while all rounder Jaques Kallis will miss the first match because of a groin injury. He should however return to the team in the second one-day on Sunday. Morne Morkel and Makhaya Ntini have been added after being rested for the Twenty20s, while Yusuf Abdulla, Robin Peterson, Justin Ontong and Johann Louw were the Twenty20 squad members to make way. South Africa couldn't find a place for Vaughn van Jaarsveld, Roelof van der Merwe or Wayne Parnell in the starting line-up.

South Africa Starting line-up for the first one day: South Africa 1 Graeme Smith (capt), 2 Herschelle Gibbs, 3 Hashim Amla, 4 AB de Villiers, 5 JP Duminy, 6 Mark Boucher (wk), 7 Albie Morkel, 8 Morne Morkel, 9 Johan Botha, 10 Dale Steyn, 11 Makhaya Ntini.

For Australia, Shane Harwood and David Warner have flown home after the Twenty20 matches. It was a shocker when Philip Hughes was not named as the part of the squad, even after his aggressive debut in the tests. Australia will rely on their opening pair of Micheal Clarke and Brad Haddin. Ponting believes the key to their success in the one-day series will be the bowling of Nathan Bracken. He was hit for 44 runs off his four overs in the second T20 match. Ben Laughli, a carpenter by profession made a paccy debut in the T20 matches and will be hoping for a debut int he one day matches. He is nippy and exciting to watch. Australia have not named the playing XI so far.

Australia squad: Michael Clarke, Brad Haddin (wk), Ricky Ponting (capt), Michael Hussey, David Hussey, Callum Ferguson, Marcus North, James Hopes, Cameron White, Mitchell Johnson, Nathan Hauritz, Brett Geeves, Nathan Bracken, Ben Laughlin.


End of this series ends a fascinating summer between the two sides. This will be the last chance for the South African player to prove their potential as South Africa at the end of this series play no International Cricket till October except the World T20 Championship, and the Champions Trophy in September. The Australians on the other hand will head straight to Abu-Dhabi for a 5 match one day series against Pakistan. The venue was shifted to Abu-Dhabi after concerns over player security in Pakistan, this decision was however taken well before the terrorist attacks on SriLankan cricketers earlier this year.

Match starts 6PM IST.

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Kunal Janu