England seek to bounce back against Proteas
England will seek to bounce back after what spin bowler Graeme Swann
described as a "public humiliation" when they face South Africa in the
second Test starting at Headingley on Thursday.
England's ranking as the number one Test team is under threat after
they were beaten by an innings and 12 runs in the first Test at the Oval
last week, with the hosts taking only two wickets while South Africa
piled up 637 runs in their only innings.
Swann revealed that the England players spent two hours analysing
their defeat immediately after the first Test and England coach Andy
Flower insisted that confidence remains high and that the team could
come back strongly. "We get ourselves into the right frame of mind by
doing the things that we have been doing very well for the last couple
of years," said Flower.
"I have every confidence in our players that we can come back and
play good cricket." England will lose their number one ranking if the
tourists win what is only a three-match series and so they need to
bounce back quickly.
However, they can draw some comfort from recent South African defeats
which have followed innings wins.
The Proteas beat India by an innings in the first Test in an away
series in 2009/10 and a home series in 2010/11 only to lose the second
Test each time, and that dubious feat was repeated at home against Sri
Lanka in 2011/12.
They also won the first Test against Australia last summer, albeit
not by an innings, only to lose the second clash.
With conditions likely to be more bowler-friendly at the Yorkshire
ground than they were at the Oval, England will seek to exploit the
potential weakness of South Africa's batting from number six down.
Specialist batsmen Jacques Rudolph and JP Duminy did not bat at the
Oval and failed to strike form in four innings apiece in warm-up games
against county teams, while the South African tail does not have the
batting credentials of the England lower order. AFP |