SA seek to build on top spot

CAPE TOWN: South Africa will seek to consolidate their top place on the world Test rankings when they play New Zealand in a two-match series starting at Newlands on Wednesday (today).

The series shapes up as a mismatch, with eighth-ranked New Zealand hit by injuries and the withdrawal of former captain and star batsman Ross Taylor, but coach Gary Kirsten said the South Africans would not take victory for granted.

Kirsten said South Africa wanted to start a busy year of Test cricket on a strong note after capturing and then retaining the number one spot with successive away series wins against England and Australia.

“We had a good meeting around the year ahead,” said Kirsten. “We’re likely to have ten Test matches in 2013, and what we do as a team is set our goals about what we want to achieve for the year. The New Zealand series will be an important stepping stone to that.

“The success of our team in 2012 was the fact that we remained humble in our play, we never took any situation or any team for granted. We made sure that our preparation was spot on and that, when we got into Test match time, we set up solid foundations to give ourselves the best chance of success. We will treat this series no differently.”

Nothing less than a 2-0 series win will be necessary for South Africa to improve their ranking points — and even then they will only gain one point. If they win the series 1-0 they will lose a point, while if they lose the series 1-0 they will shed seven points and lose their top spot to England.

Meanwhile, New Zealand captain Brendon McCullum will face a double challenge in the first Test.

Handed the captaincy in controversial circumstances, McCullum confirmed on Tuesday that he will also open the batting in the absence of the injured Peter Fulton.

“Peter was going to open but he has been struck down by an injury. That gives an opportunity to Dean Brownlie,” McCullum said.

“I’ll come back to the top of the order and Dean will come in at number four. I’ve been opening the batting for the last little while and you’ve got to bat at some point,” he said of the challenge of facing South Africa’s formidable pace trio of Dale Steyn, Vernon Philander and Morne Morkel.

Told that Philander had passed a fitness test after being a doubtful starter because of a hamstring injury, McCullum said: “He’s an excellent bowler. His stats have been phenomenal but from our point of view we’re playing against a very good cricket team so we expect them to have very good cricketers in their side.”

New Zealand’s three leading batsmen will fill the first three positions in the order. Martin Guptill will open with McCullum, while Kane Williamson will bat at number three.

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