Proteas seek counter for England

SOUTH Africa will have to find a counter for Paul Collingwood and Graeme Swann if they want to square the test series against England.
‘We will have to think of a plan to deal with them at the Wanderers,’ top South African batsman Jacques Kallis admitted. The last test starts today.

Collingwood has scored only 226 runs in the series, but it has been his fighting innings’ at Centurion and Newlands that stopped South Africa from winning both Tests.’He’s not the prettiest batsman to watch, but he’s a fighter and that is often worth more than the attractive batsmen that are supposed to stack up the runs but don’t succeed,’ said Kallis.Swann has taken the most wickets (19) in the series with his off-spin deliveries and the South African batsmen have not been able to get the better of him.This has been in spite of their belief that vast improvements had been made against spinners and that they no longer hold such a massive danger for South African batsmen.However, it was a sobering experience for them against Swann, who did not turn the ball as much as he varies his flight and created uncertainty among the batsmen.Collingwood said that he flourished in situations such as the ones in the first and third tests.’Give me difficult things to do like batting for hours just to save a test. I love it. I love seeing the frustration etched on the bowlers’ faces when another over has passed and they have not been able to make headway,’ he said.’I consider myself a fighter and it’s when your back is against the all that your fighting instincts are really tested.’If I walk out to bat under those circumstances, it gives me so much more to prove and it’s the real challenge of Test cricket.’He added that a big week lay ahead of the English. ‘We’re not here to share the series. We want to board the plane home as winners,’ he said.’It’s going to be dangerous to sit back and try and play for a draw at the Wanderers. It’s then when you can dig yourself into a hole. Well have to play positively and take the approach that we all want to be the player of the match.’ – Supercricket