The Australian and South African Cricket teams have arrived in Guyana for the first leg of the much anticipated
Justin Langer
Tri-Nation series which bowls off at the National Stadium, Providence on Friday with West Indies playing South Africa.
The Aussies touched down early Tuesday morning, while the South Africans arrived in the late afternoon period.
Interim Coach of the Australian Team, Justin Langer in speaking to Guyana Times Sport explained that his team is upbeat about their chances irrespective of the vastly different conditions from that of their homeland.
“We are happy to play in any conditions, we have got all basis covered; we have got some good spin options, we have got some guys who just came from IPL [Indian Premier League] where they played against spin bowling in slow conditions,” Langer posited.
He added, “I think the best players in the world are able to adapt regardless of the environment they are playing and I think we have got some really good players who can do that.”
The last time the team from down-under played in the Caribbean, they played to a trilling drawn series in which mystery spinner Sunil Narine took 11 wickets from five matches at and economy rate below 3.4 runs per over.
Langer’s response to the threat Narine may cause despite his remodelled action, is to treat the off-spinner with respect.
The former Australian opening batsman said, “he is a world class bowler, we respect him a lot; it is nice to see him back playing International cricket and we know we have to respect him but we have some world class batsmen who will love the challenge of playing a world class bowler”.
The number three ranked, South Africa will fine tune their preparations today at the National Stadium from 14:00 hrs to 17:00 hrs ahead of the key opening encounter against hosts, West Indies.
After Friday’s match, the men in maroon will come against the World Champions, Australia on Sunday in another day/night affair. The Aussies, who are the number one ranked team in the world will then engage their South African counterparts in a clash of the titans on Tuesday June 7 to wrap up the first round of matches.
After the Guyana leg, the tournament will head to Warner Park in St Kitts and Nevis for three more games and will conclude in Barbados with the final round of three matches and the grand final at the Kensington Oval on June 26.
All 10 matches in the series will be Day/Night affairs and are scheduled to bowl-off at 13:00hrs. This is the first time that a full series of matches will be played under lights in the Caribbean.
The three high profile matches at Providence are expected to mark the return of International cricket to Guyana after an absence of three years.
Tickets cost $4,000 for the Red and Green Stands; $3,000 for Orange Stand and $2,000 for Grass Mound and can be uplifted at the Guyana Cricket Board (GCB) on Regent Street or at the National Stadium.
Australia Squad : Steve Smith (capt), David Warner, George Bailey, Nathan Coulter-Nile, James Faulkner, Aaron Finch, John Hastings, Josh Hazlewood, Travis Head, Usman Khawaja, Nathan Lyon, Mitch Marsh, Glenn Maxwell, Mitchell Starc, Matthew Wade, Adam Zampa.
South Africa Squad : AB de Villiers (capt), Kyle Abbott, Hashim Amla, Farhaan Behardien, Quinton de Kock, JP Duminy, Faf du Plessis, Imran Tahir, Morne Morkel, Chris Morris, Wayne Parnell, Aaron Phangiso, Kagiso Rabada, Rilee Rossouw, Tabraiz Shamsi. ([email protected])
