According to Mitchell Johnson, predictability will meet adaptability when South Africa face Australia in the triangular series final in Harare on Saturday (September 6).
Days after he broke Ryan McLaren’s right arm, Johnson ramped up the psychological warfare. Johnson claimed that Australia could easily forecast South Africa’s game plan, and suggested Australia are more versatile in the way they go about their cricket.
“We know what they’re like and they’re pretty structured in their ways,” he said. “They like to play a certain way and they do it most times. It gets brought up in most meetings that we have, that they have that structure. We’re ready to adapt to any conditions and we’ve done that in the past. We go out there and play our own game.”
As such, Australia have a middle order packed with power hitters such as Glenn Maxwell and Mitchell Marsh, who have twice seen them to scores above 325 in a tournament played on slow, dry pitches.
However, Australia’s own adaptability has not always been up to the mark – most notably when they failed to get the hang of a turning pitch on Sunday and lost to Zimbabwe for the first time in 31 years.
While Australia appear to have settled on their best team since that defeat, with Steve Smith returning to provide a second spin option and Kane Richardson preferred to James Faulkner, McLaren’s departure has forced South Africa to restructure their side. Rilee Rossouw was drafted into the team to provide an extra batsman in Thursday’s victory over Zimbabwe, as Imran Tahir went out to leave Aaron Phangiso as the only specialist spinner.
“We felt it was really important to get runs on the board, which worked exceptionally well,” said AB de Villiers of the selectorial changes. “Saturday’s obviously a different opponent. It’s a possibility that we will use the same ploy. It’s definitely something to talk about.”
While both sides still have plenty of cricket to play before next year’s World Cup, and will face each other in a five-match series on Australian soil later this year, de Villiers acknowledged that there were points to be scored in a rivalry over which no love has been lost. “It’s a make-or-break game and those are the sort of games you want to be a part of and that you want to test yourself in,” he said. “It’s a great opportunity to go one-up on them before we go into that all-important series before the World Cup in Australia.”
